Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com

After being expelled from McCauley Prep School, Gil's parents send him to live with his poet grandfather in a small, oceanside town in Massachusetts. While exploring the beach one afternoon, Gil finds a blue bottle bobbing on the ocean waves, and, on a whim, writes a note that reads, "Help! I'm stranded on a desert island. Save me!" He puts the note in the bottle, sends it back to the sea, and thinks nothing else of it.

A hundred years earlier, a young calligrapher's apprentice in Ajeebgarh, India, finds the bottle floating in the Magor River...with Gil's message inside! He decides to send back a reply, and the two begin a strange correspondence.

As Gil's grandfather teaches him about the history of their home and the ancestor who built it, Gil befriends a girl named Nargis. The two bond over the eerie appearances of a ghostly hand and letters that were never delivered to their original destinations. Meanwhile, war with the British threatens Ajeebgarh, and Sikander, the apprentice, is desperate to find a way to save his friend, who was kidnapped by British soldiers. Through the help of the mysterious hand, a roving ghost postman, and an English genie sealed in a letter for a hundred years, Gil must find a way to deliver the lost letters and stop the war.

Readers who enjoyed Louis Sachar's HOLES will find a similar format here, with the story hopping between two different time periods and clues scattered throughout. A great read with just the right amount of creepy chill to go with it. ( )

While exploring the area around his grandfather's home Gil discovers a bottle that carries messages into the past, finds a genie in a letter, and three letters that were never delivered but would have changed the course of history.