> Skip to content
The Girl and the Ghost: Family Secrets
  • Published: 21 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781761349416
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $21.00

The Girl and the Ghost: Family Secrets





A trip to Paris and Versailles, an escaped convict, an ancient underground cave network, family mysteries and . . . ghosts.

Josephine Eloise Thomas is in Paris receiving a huge reward for solving one of the world’s greatest art heists. But she’s not alone. Gabriel Barbier, the gorgeous French boy who helped her solve the crime is there too, along with their families and the ghost of Louis XVII, who is still Josephine’s big secret, for now at least. Amid the celebrations the chilling news that Anastasia, the mastermind behind the crime, has escaped from custody sets everyone on edge.

Upon arriving home to the chateau, the search for information about Josephine’s mother along with the hunt for Louis’s long-lost love, Madeleine Aubert – both reveal more twists and turns than Josephine could ever have dreamed of.

Then, when Josephine’s best friend Harriet arrives from Singapore, the discovery of a prehistoric underground cave network takes the girls, Gabriel and Louis on an adventure like no other . . . but at a dangerous cost.

Will Anastasia stay away or exact her revenge on the children who put her behind bars? Can Louis help save them this time or will things go horribly wrong? And will Josephine EVER get a kiss from Gabriel?

  • Published: 21 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781761349416
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $21.00

About the author

Jacqueline Harvey

Jacqueline Harvey worked in schools for many years but has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child.


She is the author of the popular Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose, Kensy and Max and Willa and Woof series, which have sold almost two million copies in Australia alone. In 2022, she released a picture book, That Cat, illustrated by one of her former students, Kate Isobel Scott. The pair has since gone on to publish The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great and the Kevin the Sheep series. Jacqueline's books have received numerous shortlistings and awards while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea, was a CBCA Honour Book.


Jacqueline speaks to thousands of young people at schools and festivals around the world and says the characters in her books are often made up of the best bits of children she’s met over the years. While she is not a twin, like Kensy and Max she does have excellent powers of observation and has always thought she’d make a great spy.


She has narrated over thirty audio books.


Jacqueline lives between Sydney, Australia, and Queenstown, New Zealand. The first book in her new middle grade series, The Girl and the Ghost, launches in 2025.

Also by Jacqueline Harvey

See all