Hazel, a twelve-year-old aspiring detective, must decode a series of ominous clues tied to a century-old tragedy to find a missing teenager before it is too late.

"The decaying mansion is known as the old Willis place, even though no one named Willis has lived there for years.  Diana and her little brother, Georgie, know every inch of its extensive grounds.  They climb trees and swim in the pond.  And they can do whatever they want, even stay up all night.  They don't have to change their clothes, brush their hair, or go to school.  They have total freedom--as long as they don't leave the old Willis place. ...

Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house.

"A witch called Old Auntie is lurking near Dan's family's new home. He doesn't believe in her at first, but is forced to accept that she is real and take action when his little sister, Erica, is 'took' to become Auntie's slave for the next fifty years"--