Dragging herself and her bags through a strange dark town with her mother is not Flora’s idea of a great plan. Mum has rented a small cottage in a seaside town called Helmersbruk, in order to write her next novel and get away from the city with its sad memories for a while.

Flora knows she will never forget her wonderful, kind father, and losing him to illness was hard. But leaving her schoolyard bullies behind was not. After finally making it to the small but cosy cottage they will spend the month of December (1975), she decides that maybe time away from it all will be a good thing.

With her mum ensconced in her writing, Flora decides to explore the surroundings. Quite happy in her own company, she spends days in the grounds around the cottage which once belonged to the gatekeeper of a grand manor. Although sprawling and once grand, the manor house itself is locked tight against her curiosity and desire to explore inside.

Her vivid imagination fills in many gaps in the history of the house as she begins to clear a small section of garden. It’s only when she begins to find small figurines and a pair of glasses in the grounds, that Flora wants to know more about the family that once lived here.

She’s met a boy a couple of times in the grounds and she is keen to ask him if he knows more about the manor and its owners. The more she learns, the more desperate she is to explore inside. Finding a hedge maze is also exciting but not enticing enough for her to enter alone.

Strange whispers, the sound of a music box and a curious and completely white squirrel add to the mystic of the manor, until Flora is swept up entirely into its tragic history, and possible future.

A good old fashioned Christmas Mystery, set in an abandoned grand manor house and grounds. Perfectly enticing to hunker down under blankets and consume in the cold of Northern Hemisphere December, and an equally intriguing Summer read in the shade of a tree in an Australasian Christmas.

Each chapter has a full page illustration to kick it off, with chapter headings of an ornate gate. There are exactly 24 chapters, allowing the reading of it to be a booklover’s advent calendar right up to the big day itself.

Historically set in December 1975 with main character Flora, and December 1961 with a member of the manor’s original occupants; the reader gets the backstory needed to immerse themselves even further into this delicious tale.

Translated from Finnish, The Secret of Helmersbruk Manor is an advent calendar that can be read every year through multiple generations with its Victorian style, mystery and satisfying ending.

Author – Eva Frantz

Illustrator – Elin Sandstrom

Translator – A A Prime

Age – 10+

(2025, Pushkin Press, Mystery, 1975, 1961, Family, Abandoned Mansion, Ghosts, Squirrel, Secrets, Love, Wealthy family, Loss, Bullies, Bullying, Magic, Historical)