Ugh. You know, the historical aspect of this is mildly interesting - the kids investigate a mystery with its roots in the American Revolutionary War when they find old flintlocks hidden under the woodshed - but the opening is so unpleasant it spoilt the whole thing for me. Aunt Jane is moving back east, getting away from the uranium mine no doubt, so she doesn't spend the remainder of her life glowing and turning mutant. And of course Grandfather Alden, the old bastard, has to remind everyone of how stupid she was to stay there in the first place, when back in the day he, as her younger brother, decided she should move back east with him and left her to starve when she wouldn't jump on command. She was so stubborn, everyone agrees, but now that she's doing what she's told she's much better now. Again I say it: ugh.

There's a small side track about how no-one wants to live in the Alden's old farmhouse, which Grandfather has bought for Jane now that she's knuckled under. It's shades of a haunted house story, but I reckon, historical explanation aside, it's because the whole place was permeated with Grandfather's smug nastiness and his whole horrible miasma drove every subsequent owner away.