Books in Johnny Dixon series

A bookish boy searches for his missing best friend in this spooky tale by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls On a country lane in snowbound 1950s New Hampshire, a car goes skidding off the road. Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon escape unscathed, but their car is stuck, and they are forced to walk into town. Johnny doesn’t mind. A curious young man, he has fun anytime the professor takes him out, because he’s treated like an adult. Together they’ve gotten into all sorts of supernatural scrapes, and this winter night, they’ll face their toughest challenge yet. When Childermass suddenly vanishes, Johnny is the only one who can find him. The mystery is linked to a tiny skull taken from a child’s dollhouse, which seems to have powers too terrible to guess at. With the help of a crusty old Irish priest, Johnny chases the clues to his friend’s disappearance all the way to the rocky coast of Maine, where something evil hungers for revenge. From the author of the series featuring Lewis Barnavelt and Anthony Monday, the Johnny Dixon novels are charmingly old-school and shot through with suspense, and The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull may be the most chilling of them all.

A young hero and his professor friend set out to save a priest from a ghost, in this novel by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls Aside from the eccentric Professor Childermass, young sleuth Johnny Dixon’s best friend may be Father Higgins, the kindly priest at the local church. When Higgins is transferred to the congregation in the tiny town of Rocks Village, Johnny and the professor are afraid they won’t see their old friend ever again. But they’ll be reuniting with Father Higgins sooner than they think—and the thing that brings them together will be positively out of this world. No sooner has Father Higgins moved than he begins seeing a ghost lurking around the church. The apparition is a young girl who never speaks, but has a habit of leaving cryptic notes around Higgins’s house. When Higgins disappears, Johnny and the professor follow his trail, embarking on a haunting quest that will lead them all the way to England. In The Secret of the Underground Room, this multimillion-selling, Edgar Award–winning author offers a good old-fashioned ghost story packed with adventure and suspense.

A clever young man and an eccentric professor search for a missing fortune, in this spooky adventure full of “marvelous surprises” (Publishers Weekly) H. Bagwell Glomus built an empire out of cereal. In the 1920s, his Oaty Crisps were the most popular breakfast in the United States, and Mr. Glomus was the wealthiest man in the little town of Gildersleeve, Massachusetts. But he was not a happy man. In 1936, he took his own life and his will was never found. Legend has it that his last will and testament is hidden somewhere in his office, but so far, no one has been able to find it and claim the $10,000 reward. Yet, no one has looked as hard as Johnny Dixon. A precocious young boy who’s happier reading old books than playing outside, Johnny has a best friend in the eccentric old Professor Childermass, who knows every detail of Mr. Glomus’s story—except the location of the will. Together, along with a new pal from Boy Scout camp named Fergie, they intend to crack the puzzle—but before they can claim their prize, they must defeat an ancient evil force: a living mummy intent on destroying them. From the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon stories are a refreshingly old-fashioned series of adventure and supernatural mystery. In the world of young adult suspense, few authors have the magic touch of John Bellairs.

In a thrilling adventure, a young sleuth and his professor friend are challenged to solve a riddle and win a fortune Professor Roderick Childermass may be the strangest person Johnny Dixon has ever met, but compared to his brother Peregrine, the professor is practically normal. Peregrine is a born trickster, and when he knows his death is near, he sends a letter promising the professor his entire $10,000,000 estate—assuming he can solve one final riddle. The professor feels that his brother is mocking him from beyond the grave. If Peregrine were alive, he says, he’d kill him. To crack the puzzle and claim the fortune, Johnny and the professor head north to the wild countryside of far-off Maine. They’ll find that the riddle is the least of their problems. To inherit the money, the professor must stay alive until the end of the summer, and since everyone in Maine seems to want Peregrine’s heir dead, survival will be no easy task. From the author of the Lewis Barnavelt novels, including The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon series is full of fun, adventure, and supernatural chills, along with “believable and likable characters” who are a delight to spend time with (The New York Times).

A young man is possessed by an evil spirit in this “gothic spine-chiller” by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Booklist) The abandoned schoolhouse sits just outside the town of Duston Heights, Massachusetts, and Johnny Dixon is not sure what called him there. Inside the darkened building, he finds three chilling stained glass windows which show a hooded monster, a vengeful angel, and the hateful, staring face of Zebulon Windrow. Impossibly, the old man speaks to Johnny, threatening revenge on behalf of one of his descendants—and then the room is filled with horrible insects. As they cover Johnny’s body, moving closer toward his mouth, he awakes and escapes the nightmare. But is Johnny’s vision of the schoolhouse really just a dream, or is it a warning? When Johnny falls into a strange trance from which he cannot be awakened, his friend Professor Childermass races to save him. To rescue the young boy, the professor must unlock the secret of the dream, and delve into the terrible mysteries of the Windrow estate. The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost is suspenseful, spooky reading for fans of R. L. Stine or anyone looking for a story featuring a middle-school-aged hero facing down grown-up-sized scares.