The Secret of the Underground Room

I've been taking my time with the wife's Bellairs' books because I didn't really want to run out of them. Time and again I've devoured a favourite author far too quickly and have been left with nothing to go back to... so it's been a while since I last dabbled with some Bellairs. This is a good one, as are pretty much all of them actually, only marred by a slightly under developed plot. It felt like there was one or two set pieces almost missing from the book and the final denouement (rather wonderfully on the isle of Lundy) just slightly fizzles out. But there's so many good things to say about it - VERY good portrayal of Britain and Bristol, lovely sense of the UK in the 1950s, nicely judged placing of little British elements like show more Newcastle Brown Ale and explaining what ground floors are to an American audience... and still the same wonderfully creepy sense of genuine horror that Bellairs always makes his own. Why Bellairs isn't better known in the UK I'll never know... a genuine tragedy show less

Not one of my favorites (of Bellairs) but still a fun read. Slow start, and the young protagonists Johnny and Fergie end up simply being there for the action, rather than taking much part in the actual culmination (though they get themselves there int he first place). The suspense, though is as chilling as any of Bellairs' books. And of course, they're just as good for adults as for kids.

The trip to England, good; the Christian magic, bad. Adults really shouldn't read this stuff. This is the last one by John Bellairs, so I get to stop now.

When Father Higgins disappears, Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass discover disturbing clues which lead them to England and an encounter with a long-dead knight.

$3.99

Professor Childermass is stunned when his old friend, Father Higgins, claims that a ghost is trying to contact him. Then the priest disappears. A trail of disturbing clues leads to England... where Father Higgins seems to be trying to raise his mother from the grave!