'They all come' - the voice was low and gloating - 'rich and poor, old and young, they all need the barber . . . I sit them in my chair and . . . I cuts 'em! From ear to ear!'

When Jackus gets involved with the school play, he thinks it's going to be a bore. He couldn't be more wrong . . .

'This play we're doing, it's not true, is it? I mean, there never was a Sweeney Todd who killed people?'

Jackus never wanted to be in the school play, but he didn't have much choice.

Now he sees that what's unfolding on-stage is more than just acting, more than just pretend. Strange things are happening. Terrifying things.

Ghostly footprints. Unexplained whispering. The touch of a cold hand in the shadows . . .

What has been woken by the play's dark words? Can Jackus stop it, or are the actors doomed to play out the tragedy to the bitter end?

Probably the best ghost story of my childhood . . . when I think back to my favourite books ever, this is one of them.

compulsive reading

a thoroughly nightmarish and at the same time utterly convincing ghost story

a well-wrought plot . . . vividly-drawn characters, and a unity of setting, oppressively enclosed.