Deep and Dark and Dangerous

Hahn, Mary Downing. Deep and Dark and Dangerous. 2007. 187p. ISBN 9780-618-66545-7. Available at FIC HAH on the library shelves.

When Claire and Dulcie were young, they used to travel to Maine during the summer to spend time at their grandparents’ cottage on the lake. But something happened and ever since they haven’t been back.

At the beginning of March, Ali discovers a box left over from her grandmother’s passing five years ago. In it, along with old books, she discovers an aged photograph. On it are both her mother Claire and her aunt Dulcie, but the photo has been torn and someone is missing from it. All that can be seen is a hand. On the back are the names of her mother and aunt, as well as T. The rest of the name is torn.  Who is that person? When she brings the photo to her mother, her mother panics and she throws the photo out, telling Ali she doesn’t remember that day at all.

When her aunt Dulcie and her five-years-old daughter Emma come and visit, Ali brings up the photo again, much to her mother’s disapproval. Dulcie also says she doesn’t remember this T person nor that specific day. But she has a proposition for Ali. Dulcie had the cottage fixed, and she wants to spend the summer there doing art. Would Ali come with her to babysit Emma? Despite Claire’s reluctance, Ali enthusiastically agrees to go.

Within the first few days, Ali and Emma meet Sissy, a scrawny girl wearing a faded bathing suit. Sissy is mean and vicious, yet Emma really likes her and tries to emulate her. There is something creepy about Sissy, but Ali can’t put her finger on her. Then Sissy brings up Teresa, a girl who drowned in the lake the last summer Claire and Dulcie spent at the lake. Teresa’s body was never found, and Sissy implies that both Claire and Dulcie were responsible for her murder. But why is Sissy so angry? And what lurks at the bottom of the lake?

Fans of Closing for the Season will enjoy this ghost story. For another ghost story by Hahn, take a look at One for Sorrow: A Ghost Story. A thrilling ghost story can also be found in It Happened to Anna.