Help me find this scary children's book

[NCB2019]

Sorry posting in AIBU for traffic.

My son read a book to me when he was about 9/10 that was really good but it was 5/6 years ago and I can't remember the title. I've tried googling but can't find it.

99% sure it's set in the UK. A boy (age 10ish) moves into a manor house/mansion with his younger sister (I think) and his father. They move in because his dad is going to do the house up to sell it or because he's been employed to do it up.

Creepy things happen but I can't remember what exactly. One wing of the house is completely boarded up and they can't get in. Around the house are paintings of people that have lived in the house, the house and the large ground and I think these change as when someone dies they are magically added to the picture.

The Lord of the manor type person who previously lived in the house liked to hunt. I think he hunted visitors to the house and chased them round the grounds and killed them.

Somehow the boy or his sister gets into the boarded up section of the house and gets trapped in a small room.

I can't remember much else. Except maybe a dog appearing in one of the portraits.

Any ideas???

I don't think I've ever heard of it, but I did find this - it has a list of resources for finding the name of a book that you've forgotten.

www.nypl.org/blog/2017/11/22/finding-book-forgotten-title?page=5

I am probably going mad but I'm sure there was a mumsnet thread about a book like this a while ago - was it you, op?!

can't find it though, must've imagined it

Sounds like a goosebumps story have you looked through all the titles in the series?

I don't know the book but ideas that come to me is that it could be a Goosebumps or Point Horror book? Or maybe one of the Anthony Horowitz horror stories ?

Try here OP:

forums.abebooks.co.uk/discussions/AbeBookscouk_BookSleuth/abesleuthuk?dbg=6&redirCnt=1&mobile=y

Definitely not goosebumps or R.L. Stine. It wasn't part of a series it was a standalone book.

No I haven't posted about this before.

Oh and definitely not Anthony Horrowitz my DS has all his books.

The author Chris Riddal wrote spooky children's books. They had beautiful illustrations in them.

Sorry, surname riddell

Just checked Chris Riddell's books and it's not one of his

I have gotta admit this has got me well curious. I want to know now !!

It's driving me crazy. I've asked DS about it and he says he knows what book I'm talking about but has no idea of characters names or what the book was called. The only good thing is that he's pretty certain it was from the local library. I thought it was from his primary school's library which I have no access to. I did log on to his library account as it has past loans but it only lists the previous 10 books borrowed so I might go into the library and ask if they have records of books borrowed and if they would let me see them!! Failing that I will have to look on the shelves and hope someone else hasn't borrowed it.

Might have been a Hippo Ghost Story

Delurking as a one off to say that it's The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish.

Isn't this a classic 90s film????

Aw, I loved Hippo ghost stories! Maybe it's the hidden tomb by Jenny Oldfield?

@Talgarth
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

@Cabezona
I don't watch a lot of films so I have no idea. If you remember the name of the film please let me know, I would like to watch it.

I'm trying my hardest to remember the name

I've even asked DP but he has no idea what I mean and I thought he'd get it instantly.

Is it the film "the haunted mansion"?

Thirteen ghosts... phew. That was bugging me.

Probably absolutely no help to you tho OP. Sorry.

No problem, NCB2019, Irecognised it immediately - and now I'm going to reread it, too