In Pierdomenico Baccalario’s book The Door to Time, he wanted to show that the dead still have influence on the living. This book takes place in the modern day England in a hidden town called Kilmore Cove. The story is told from the perspective of a boy from London named Jason, who believes in ghosts and always likes a good mystery, his twin sister: Julia, who believes that ghosts are not real and that her brother is crazy, and their new friend, Rick, who knows much of Kilmore Cove for he has lived there all his life. Jason and Julia are moving into a house with many secrets called Argo Manor that had a supposedly mad previous owner: Ulysses Moore. They first meet their care taker, Nestor who shows them around the house. One room catches Jason’s eye, one that had been there through the Middle Ages as a part of a castle's keep. Their parents are going back to London to finish up the moving process and leave the children with Nestor, so they invite their new friend, Rick, over to investigate the room. There they notice a door that looks the oldest. It was beaten almost to the breaking point. Curiosity makes Jason want to look inside, but the door is locked. But Jason does not give up so easily…
One of the best parts of the book is when Jason falls off of the cliff and finds a secret message hidden in a package inside a secret crevice in the rock. It is in a code that they find in a book called ‘Dictionary of Forgotten Languages’. Once decoded, it reads “When the grotto’s seems defeat, these earth-lights you may use to shine upon the fleet that takes you where you choose” (80). Not only was the fact that Jason almost falls to his death exciting, but when they decode the message was intriguing as well. After they translate it into English, it still is a riddle that needed to be put together with other clues they find throughout the book. This book is similar to another mystery book called The Westing Game. Both books are about a mysterious mansion and their old owner that died and gave their house away (although The Westing Game was about people earning it by finding out who had killed the old owner). Both books embrace the idea that dead people can change life for the living. In The Door to Time, Ulysses Moore gives Jason, Julia, and Rick clues to how to open the door and to what is inside of it (or so Jason believes). In The Westing Game, the old owner, Samuel W. Westing, sends letters to a few trustworthy people (and one not so trustworthy person) that he wants to solve the question of who killed him so that they can get his earnings. This is also true in life. A dying person’s best wish is usually done in their honor. People that enjoy mystery books should read this book because there is always a riddle to solve, and the answer always amazes the reader.