Dekker and his little sister, Riley, have been banished to the country for the summer to live with their boring great-aunt Primrose in the dreary community of Button Hill. Resentful at being taken away from the city and his friends, Dekker does everything his Aunt Primrose tells him not to. His disobedience and curiosity lead him into a spooky root cellar underneath the basement, where he finds a strange grandfather clock with a skull for a face. When a mean trick goes horribly wrong, Dekker finds himself pursuing Riley into a topsy-turvy underground world. He learns that Button Hill is the juncture that attaches Nightside, the realm of the dead, to Dayside, the land of the living.

Button Hill is a scrumptious Gothic treat, oozing high-calorie horror and delectable dread. A sea of bones, blood-sucking monsters, brooding cemeteries, statues that come to life, skeleton conductors on hurtling trains – Bradford delights in all the rich, inventive images of death and decay he can pack into the book.

In his passage through Nightside, Dekker encounters evil, betrayal, malice, and the glimmerings of first love – but his most important discoveries are his own courage and a deep affection for his sister. Although Dekker’s quest seems hopeless at times, Bradford never lets him or the reader slide into complete despair. A cheerful optimism bounces through the story, much of it coming from the upbeat, buoyant Riley.

Button Hill is a rollicking good read, with adventures tumbling one after the other. In the heady surge to the finish, certain elements of the plot (such as a drastic step Riley takes in the second part of the book) are not quite worked through, and entertaining supporting characters are introduced then disappear. But the overall story is so gleefully thrilling that we can forgive these minor lapses as growing pains of a first-time author. The ending hints at more books in a possible series, to which readers will say, “Yes, please!”