I couldn’t stay away from another series review for long, because Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol is that good. Every monster trope in the world? Flashbacks every book? How is this ages 5-8? Rare male main characters, too!

Premise

Eight-year-old Andres Miedoso is new to Kersville, and gets swept up in the action-packed excitement of being the second member of the Ghost Patrol. They investigate and deal with anything haunted, creepy, or spooky in Kersville. Too bad Andres is scared of everything. And his last town never had a Ghost Patrol. Or ghosts. Or anything weird. What’s up with this town?

You’ll notice I didn’t start that paragraph with Desmond Cole, the character in the title of the book. That’s because Andres is the real main character. We’ll get to Desmond, don’t worry. It’s his Ghost Patrol after all.

Characters

Andres Miedoso
Andres is a lot of things. He’s a dork and a nerd and a loser. He’s scared of everything. He likes being a normal kid so much he’s not even in the title of the book. But also he’s the only one that we can really see Kersville through the eyes of. Because he just moved here. And the “being a normal kid” thing. It’s relatable.

The series is written in first person, through Andres’ perspective. Each book, we start with his take on usual everyday events. Moving to a new town, going to the beach, getting a pop quiz, etc. Then we get thrown into a crazy supernatural situation in the new town, beach, or school. That’s all in chapter one, every book. Great way to get right into a story. The “Bet you’ll never guess how I got here!” type events get me every time.

Desmond Cole
Desmond’s so cool I bought the digital version of book 21 just to get this picture of him. The only other time I’ve bought a second copy of a book for this blog was for the Pippa picture in my one-year anniversary post. Desmond is Pippa levels of cool.

He’s the guy who started the Ghost Patrol. He’s got gadgets for days. He’s calm and collected. You can trust this guy, because he knows what he’s doing. Just don’t ask him to ride a bike.

We don’t actually get a lot of backstory on Desmond, I think because it makes him more mysterious? He has parents. They’re bad at cooking. He likes eating other food a lot because of this. He has a Ghost Patrol, but we don’t really find out why. It’s implied because he just finds supernatural events interesting. You just kind of take everything around Desmond for granted. He’s the one that’s lived here forever, so he must be right. And that’s fine with me.

Zax (and the other monsters of the week)
Zax is the first ghost we encounter at the start of the series. He lives in Andres’ house, and ends up becoming…kind of a friend? House ghost? Like Isadora’s house ghost, but Zax actually does things. He’s a good out to explain supernatural things when even Desmond couldn’t know them. He’s not in every book, but he’s in it enough to be mentioned here. He doesn’t normally wear the sunglasses.

Every book, there’s always a new literal monster of the week. Zombies, trolls, ghouls. Every creepy trope in the book. The catch is that they’re not always monsters, and they’re never what they seem. That’s how Miedoso (the author) gets away with all of this at such a young age group. Sometimes the school principal is just related to a witch, but isn’t one herself. Sometimes the zombie zookeeper is just a nice guy, but also happens to be a zombie. It helps that there’s never anything violent or gory.

The Ghost Patrol
This is normally where I’d talk about my favorite character in the series, but the truth is it’s really both Andres and Desmond. They’re both so cool. Their dynamic makes them work together really well. The whole story is through Andres, and while he does have his shortcomings, he’s a likeable kid that just doesn’t want to be scared to death every five seconds. Desmond actually doesn’t talk all that much, so when he does, you listen. He always has a tool for any situation. He always has a plan, no matter how crazy it seems. He’s super chill about all of this too. He’s the one with his name on the cover, after all.

Series Breakdown

Get ready for some spoilers, because that’s where the heart of these stories lie. Every book, we get another monster of the week. Most weeks, they’re not always as they seem. That’s the catch I talked about earlier. I’ll try to keep things vague when I can.

(1) The Haunted House Next Door – Andres moves to Kersville and finds he has a ghost in his house.
(2) Ghosts Don’t Ride Bikes, Do They? – Andres is actually good at riding bikes, and convinces Desmond to tag along. After he finds out a ghost is possessing bikes at the local track.
(3) Surf’s Up, Creepy Stuff! – The Kersville beach is home to a pack of mersurfers.
(4) Night of the Zombie Zookeeper – One of the workers at the zoo is a literal zombie. Nobody seems to notice or care.
(5) The Scary Library Shusher – The Kersville library is haunted by a scary librarian. She has her reasons.
(6) Major Monster Mess – The entire school cafeteria staff is monsters. It’s okay, they’re really good cooks!
(7) The Sleepwalking Snowman – Sometimes, snowmen come to life without magic top hats. Because golems! This is the first time Andres knows something supernatural that Desmond doesn’t. Because he’s a nerd.
(8) Campfire Stories – This is the spider book. Fair warning, because they don’t show you that on the cover. Also Zax comes along and does things!
(9) Now Museum, Now You Don’t – The museum comes to life.
(10) Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun – The epitome of Desmond Cole books and the only one I’ve rated on Goodreads. Which I never do. I’m gonna talk about this one in my yearly recap, so I’ll save it for then. There’s a Boogie Man, I’ll just say that.
(11) Escape From the Roller Ghoster – The Ghost Patrol gets VIP passes to the local amusement park. This is weird, because they didn’t do anything to deserve them.
(12) Beware the Werewolf – The local dog catcher is a werewolf.
(13) The Vampire Ate My Homework – Andres and Desmond’s main teacher is Dr. Acula. Subtle. But is he a real vampire?
(14) Who Wants I Scream? – The new ice cream man is serving up some strange scoops at the local pool.
(15) The Bubble Gum Blob – A ghostly brand of gum terrorizes the town. There’s not even really a catch here, it’s actually kind of scary (and gross).
(16) Mermaid You Look – A creepy mermaid, finally! Mermaids are a super common theme in chapter books, and they’re never the fairy tale folklore “lure people to their deaths” spooky type. Thank you, Desmond Cole. Even if she’s maybe not as creepy as she seems.
(17) A Troll Lot of Trouble – There’s an actual troll under a bridge in the Kersville forest. And he has riddles!
(18) The Show Must Demon! – This title is the biggest reach of any Desmond Cole title. I kind of love how hard it’s trying to make “the show must go on” phrase work. One of their teachers is a demon, by the way. He’s probably the most menacing of all the monsters of the week so far. Which makes sense.
(19) Never A Doll Moment – Desmond’s grandma has a lot of dolls. And they all want to play with Andres and Desmond.
(20) Time To Clown Around – The Ghost Patrol attends the town’s clown-themed birthday party. Apparently Kersville was founded by clowns. I’ll believe it.
(21) The Witch Get Witcher – We finally meet the school principal! And she’s maybe a witch and her cat might also be too?
(22) I’m Your Biggest Phantom – New kid Stanley moves to Kersville, which means Andres is no longer the new kid! Stanley is a bit obsessed with the Ghost Patrol. That will happen when you get possessed by a phantom with ulterior motives. Stanley’s actually pretty cool, when he’s himself. I kind of hope he becomes the third member of the Ghost Patrol eventually, but I get it if Miedoso wants to stick to just the two. I’m not sure what dynamic Stanley would add.
(23) Hold On To Your Heads! – It’s a closed room thrift store episode! That must be a chapter book first. One of the mannequins comes to life, and wants to take Andres’ head.

Cool Stuff

We start at the action in chapter 1, then flashback the whole book to get back to the action.
I briefly went over this in the Andres section, but it bears repeating here. This is sacrilege. Nobody does this in chapter books, and Miedoso makes it work super well. I have to keep reading to know how they got into these situations.

Kersville is weird, but not always.
This is what really makes the books work. There are real monsters in Kersville, it’s a weird town. But not everyone is a monster, and you never know what you’re dealing with as a reader ’til the very end.

Desmond has gadgets because shut up he knows what he’s doing.
You shouldn’t question it. I don’t get why everything has to be explained. Desmond doesn’t. He’s the Ghost Patrol guy, of course he has cool ghost tech that actually works. Explanation enough.

The adults are in it just the right amount.
Andres does have parents. They have some top-secret government job, which means Miedoso can make them leave the scene at a moment’s notice. It’s a pretty clever excuse. Desmond’s parents are around a bit too, but also just to get Desmond out of the scene with their bad cooking. Their teachers are always possibly monsters, so anytime a teacher is in scene, it gets tense. Dr. Acula, the focus of book 13, was actually shown in a much earlier book. He’s been around for a while, and until book 13, I was wondering when they were gonna get to him (and if he was really a vampire or not).

The main character’s name isn’t in the title of the book!
I still can’t get over this. This is what kept me reading in book 1.

Conclusion

Books 24 and 25 are already scheduled for release this year, so this series is in for the long haul. I hope Miedoso doesn’t run out of tropes. Book 22 had a phantom, which is a kind of ghost, so it seems that they’re going to get into the different strains of supernatural stuffs. The Dungeons and Dragons player in me appreciates that.

So should you check out Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol? If you have any appreciation for horror, this is a great take on the usual mainstays. Guy-focused series don’t come along too often in chapter books either, and I think this is the best of them that I’ve read. No annoying younger brothers, no know-it-all older brothers, no superhero brothers, no brothers that are descendants of other brothers. Just two friends.

Like I usually say with these longer series, you don’t have to read all of them. One or two will give you the gist, and if you like them, you can always check out more. There’s always more ghoulies to patrol for, and Desmond isn’t going anywhere.