A New Darkness

Delaney, Joseph. A New Darkness.
September 2nd 2014 by Greenwillow Books

After The Fury of the Seventh Son, Tom Ward returns to Chipenden to be the new spook. He is young, and people don't have the faith in him that they had in Master Gregory. They trust him to remove a few small problems, but when young girls show up dead in their beds, untouched except for being covered in blood, the people don't quite trust him. Luckily, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Jenny, who has decent powers (including empathy for ghosts), approaches Tom and wants to be his apprentice. He is leery of a girl serving, but puts her through the same tests that he was put through. The girl does well enough, and it's a good thing; when the creature at large turns out to be a Kobalos, Tom will need all the help he can get, including the help of Grimalkin, whom Jenny doesn't trust.
Strengths: I'm not a fan of horror, but I read each of these new installments eagerly! There is something about the interplay of good and evil that is very well done and keeps me turning the pages. The addition of Jenny is excellent, and there's a lot of back story about her that could be told. Grimalkin is a fantastic character-- evil, but on Tom's side. She makes some huge errors in dealing with the Kobaloi(?) so Jenny doesn't trust her, which will make the next book interesting.
Weaknesses: The ending. ARGH! Not okay. Not okay! I don't want to spoil this, and I'm sure things will change, but... ARGH.

The movie, Seventh Son looks far too spooky for me! Now, if the student who checked out the nice, new copy of Revenge of the Witch on the first day of school could just FIND it...