The Pinhoe Egg (Chrestomanci Series) - Fantasy Novel by Diana Wynne Jones - Perfect for Young Adult Readers & Fantasy Book Lovers

However, a deal of that is probably due to my liking for the characters of Chrestomanci (Christopher) and Cat. The story is entertaining, if a bit gruesome at the end, and the new characters are pretty well fleshed-out (except I kept getting all those Aunts and Great-Aunts jumbled in my mind!). The one thing that puzzled me is that in earlier Chrestomanci stories (The Lives of Christopher Chant and Charmed Life), people are always coming and going from towns near Chrestomanci Castle, with no problems, but in this book [where the background of the story has been going on for many hundreds of years] people have trouble getting to some of the towns without an escort from the Pinhoe family. I'm not familiar with the geopolitical setup of English towns; perhaps there really are this many different small towns within eyeshot of the Castle. Otherwise, a great read, worth staying up late to finish.