Slightly dubious but thoroughly effective quick horror for young audiences. It's pitched to the high end of a specific reading scheme, but there's no reason why it couldn't take off for a general audience. Lola's parents are following her gran on a six weeks' stay at a massive country pile, so the furniture can be restored and the house brought out of Victorian times and into the modern world. But there are things in another world to contend with, too – the whole village thereabouts knows of the ghosts that haunt the place. And when Lola finds two new friends, who connect her to the local clockmaker, she learns that now she's hearing the mansion's clock-tower chime thirteen, there's even more where the ghosts came from...

This can have some sense of being daft, especially for an adult audience, but that's over very quickly, as this format doesn't allow any flab or filler to stop the pages turning. The pacey read certainly doesn't have the sense of the daft for the right reader – and however many common ghost story tropes are thrown at it, this ultimately loses much of the stereotype and brings something new to the party. It's a three-night-long sleepover party, for people who had only just met, but ignore the contrivance and what you have is a chiller that does just what it intended to do – this will definitely be able to bring on the creeps. Its lack of subtlety does reduce the rating to a strong four stars – but like I say, many in its audience will be immune to that and see this as worthy of more.

I wanted to love this so much, but I honestly do not. It is not atmospheric or scary enough for me. The cover is scary and I was expecting something truly scary but this one is not. And the illustration inside the book is nowhere near as scary as the one on the front cover and that kind of killed the mood for me. Sorry for a review like this, but it really does not work for me.

A great ghost story for kids. It's not pandering, using more difficult words among the simpler language to challenge and teach kids. I was especially impressed with how the author managed to build atmosphere with simple language. This is definitely the kind of ghost story I would have loved as a kid.

This is a great book for a kid who is perhaps struggling with reading and needs something a bit more simplistic language wise, but still wants a good, exciting story to read. It's also not too long or complicated, so it'll work really well for those who need to build their confidence in reading.

The Thirteenth Chime of Alcott Hall is a great addition to the Collins Big Cat readers as this is an ideal book to help support reading motivation and fluency in the 9-11 reading group.

This is a wonderful ghost story as a Victorian family find themselves trapped within a house for over a century. When Lola and her parents arrive at Alcott Hall to spend the summer with her grandmother who is working at the house, Lola immediately notices a strange figure in a window; this is followed by the sighting of a mysterious lady in the night when she hears a clock in the house strike thirteen.

Lola makes friends with Archie and Poppy who soon join her in trying to solve the mystery of Alcott Hall.

J. P. Rose has written a pitch perfect ghost story for upper key stage 2 readers who may often not want to read longer books- the prose and vocabulary is accessible and the story build in ice and adventure. Monique Steele's illustrations are gloriously gothic and quite scary .

Highly recommended to all readers but especially those 9-11 year olds who may sometimes be reluctant to pick up a book and need something gripping