The Prince of Mist

"In 1943, in a seaside town where their family has gone to be safe from war, thirteen-year-old Max Carver and sister, fifteen-year-old Alicia, with new friend Roland, face off against an evil magician who is striving to complete a bargain made before he died. When his family moves to an old house by the sea, Max discovers an abandoned garden of mysterious statues positioned on a six-pointed star. In the centre rising out of the mist stands a clown, its arm outstretched. Then Max meets Roland, who takes him swimming through the underwater ruins of an old shipwreck near the lighthouse where he lives with his grandfather, and Max sees the uncanny six-pointed star again. But it's Roland's grandfather and his tale of the shipwreck and the circus troupe on board that makes Max realise that he is not the only one to be affected the clown's sinister presence."--Publisher description