Falling Leaves and Fireworks - The Benson Family 5 - by Chrissie Manby

 RATING: GOOD

First Published: 2016

SPOILERS!!!

This is a brief novella about the Benson family, who we have grown fond of in the other books in the series.

Ronnie and Mark have had their cat, Fishy, since their daughter Sophie was a toddler. The cat dies in its sleep, and Jack is very upset. When Grandfather Bill died, he took it well, but he is very sad and apathetic after Fishy dies. Halloween is close, and after much talking Ronnie persuades him to dress up and go trick-or-treating with his friends. Cathy from next door usually goes over the top in her decorations, and she invites Ronnie, Mark, Jack and his friends to a party in her home. After trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood, they go to Cathy's. While the children are watching a film, Cathy tells them that she sees ghosts all the time, and actually she has seen a ghost figure looking at Ronnie's house several times.

Talking about ghosts give Ronnie the creeps, but Mark tells her that Cathy is being her usual self. Then she comes up with the idea of playing a prank on her. Pretending to check Cathy's loft she hides a baby monitor there, and that night he and Ronnie make them hear a siren from the Second World War, and Mark keeps saying 'I talk from the other side'. The next day Cathy is excited and tells Ronnie about the ghost who talked to her and she thinks it is the ghost of her great grandaunt. The next day they do the same. Yet, at around three o'clock a.m Cathy knocks at the door, saying that the garage is burning and she was warned by her ghost. 

The fire is put out, but Cathy calls a local journalist, and she tells him about being woken up by a ghost and being saved from dying. A local television comes to interview Cathy, and even an America channel is interested. Eventually, Cathy learns about the prank and she takes offence, but she and Ronnie finally make up.

On bonfire night Ronnie and her whole family are having a barbecue as well as a big bonfire. Jack has been saying that he has seen the ghosh of Fishy, and that day he discovers a cat with its kittens hidden between the kindle for the bonfire. This is the cat Jack had seen, and Ronnie agrees to keep this cat and the kittens.

This was a pleasant novella and the last book in the series. I have to say that I have enjoyed the adventures of this family.