SOLVED. Early '90s YA Horror book about mean old lady ghost who feeds a child a sandwich with a mouse in it. [s]

[Kate]

I am fairly certain I read this book between 1993-1996 (no later than May '96.) I feel like it was one of those Goosebumps knock offs you got at a book fair for cheap, or in a book order. Most definitely not RL Stine. I feel like the author was a woman, and the title had neon green, with possibly a mean ghost on a rocking chair on the cover, but I could be wrong, here.

From what I can remember, a mom dropped her kids (possibly a girl and her two brothers) off to an older family home (maybe their aunt's?) and a pair of elderly ghosts haunted it (I think a man and a woman.) They were MEAN, at one point they fed a child a sandwich and the "jelly" turned out to be mouse guts. SPOILERS-- As far as I can recall (and I could be wrong, here) the book ends with the kids solving the mystery of the ghosts/finding their bodies, but the ghosts are just nasty and decide to stick around the house, because their murder was incidental to their nastiness and the kids see them in the attic as they leave with their mother so there's no real resolution here. The ghosts at one point, even took over the body of the Aunt, I think?

Would love to track this down as I've thought about it a lot in the 25+ years since I read it. I made the mistake of describing the plot to my mom as I was reading it, and I'm pretty sure she threw it away once I was done with it as she was horrified at the whole "feed a kid a mouse guts sandwich" aspect of it.

[Rainbowheart]

There were quite a few Goosebumps knockoffs from that era.

Do any of these series look familiar?

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

[Kate]

Thank you! I found the title yesterday in a fit of desperation by searching children's horror lots on ebay. It was "Scared to Death" by Jahnna N. Malcolm, and it is every bit as messed up as I remember!

[Rainbowheart]

Glad you found it!

Scared to Death for the link.