HAUNTED SUMMER

A pedestrian and formulaic ghost story, entirely lacking in chills. After Abby receives an antique music box as a gift, her absurdly timid baby-sitter, Hannah, says that the ghost of an angry young woman is coming after it. Abby believes her and, after some perfunctory investigation, discovers the dark history of the box. Abby and Hannah decide to bury the music box at the grave of the young woman to end the haunting. The setting is vague, the writing flat, and the book hardly seems like the work of the author of Out of the Dark (1995). Wright's fans will be disappointed, and so will browsers drawn in by the spooky title. (Fiction. 7-11)