The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt

This second book in the series is decidedly darker dealing as it does with corpses, demons, and serious illness, and Bellairs doesn't shy away from a child's fears of death and abandonment. But all these things only add to its macabre charm. I would have loved this as a kid; as an adult I can still appreciate its pint-sized sense of gothic doom (if only Edward Gorey had illustrated it throughout!).

Oh man oh man -- John Bellairs: still great. Five stars might be overkill, but I really enjoyed this one. The writing kind of reminds me of a more subdued Roald Dahl, if he were more focused on supernatural Gothic horror, etc. The trademarks are all there: cantankerous old adults, goofy (disgruntled but) friendly characters, bizarre puzzles and mysteries. If this were the comicsverse, I could see really enjoying a Johnny Dixon / Matilda crossover. Just sayin'.

The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt, set in New England during the Korean War, is the second installment in Bellairs' Johnny Dixon/Professor Childermass series of mysteries aimed at young readers. The book's cover bills it as "the sequel to The Curse of the Blue Figurine", and given that the first book had an Egyptian-tinged mystery, one might think that a book that features a mummy in its title might be more of the same. However, this is not the case, the only real relationship between The Curse of the Blue Figurine and The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt is that Professor Childermass, Johnny Dixon, and Johnny's family are in the book: the mystery is entirely unconnected to anything that happened in the previous book.

In many ways the show more mystery in the book is secondary to the story of Johnny dealing with loss and isolation. Johnny does join the Boy Scouts and participate in a scout outing, which garners him a friend: the athletic but intellectual Byron "Fergie" Ferguson (who will remain a character through the rest of the series). However, Johnny must deal with his grandmother's life threatening illness, and the fear that if she dies, then his grandfather will quickly follow her, leaving him alone. This fear of being left alone is made all the more real due to the loss of his mother. Finally, Johnny's worst fear is realized when he learns that his father's plane has been shot down and he may be dead as well. This, to me, is the scariest part of the book, playing on the very real fear a child might have of being left without a family. Johnny does consider that he might live with Professor Childermass, but discounts it on the grounds that the Professor lives alone and probably wouldn't want anyone to mess up his bachelor existence. In the end, it is the fear of being left alone that places Johnny in danger, as he is driven to do some rather foolish things.

Those foolish things are related to the gothic horror portion of the book: it seems that an eccentric millionaire cereal magnate who dabbled in black magic named H. Bagwell Glomus hid his will and left cryptic clues as to its whereabouts. Johnny becomes fascinated by the mystery, more so when the scout trip he is on takes him near an abandoned estate owned by the Glomus family and he has a flash of insight in which he figures out what the first set of clues mean. Johnny recruits his new friend Fergie to make a midnight hike to the estate where encounters the creepy Chad Glomus (who promptly mysteriously disappears, but not before revealing the existence of a magical malevolent guardian and showing Johnny the requisite hidden passage onto the estate). Driven by a $10,000 reward offered by the Glomus family to whoever can find the will, and believing that his ill grandmother needs the money to pay for her treatment, Johnny becomes obsessed with the puzzle, and eventually runs away from home to the Glomus estate to find it. For the most part Bellairs plays fair with the reader, giving the clues necessary to figure out the mystery, with only one big exception where he holds back information that the characters have. Overall, the mystery is fun, but ultimately secondary to the story.

In the end, the mystery of the missing will is solved, although not in a way that one would expect. Johnny learns that many of his fears had been unfounded, mostly because he jumped to conclusions rather than asking questions. Johnny also learns that he should not underestimate his friends, breaking down a little bit of the isolated loner personality that had been established for the character. Unlike most of the other Johnny Dixon stories, The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt is more about Johnny growing up than it is about any kind of gothic mystery (although the mystery is well done, and fun to follow). Any kid who has ever felt left out, isolated, or alone will probably empathize with Johnny. Any kid who likes mystery stories mixed with a little bit of magic will probably enjoy this book, and might pick up a few useful lessons on the value of asking questions and trusting your friends to do the right thing.

This review has also been posted to my blog Dreaming About Other Worlds. show less

Johnny Dixon is sure that he can solve the riddle that will reveal the hiding place of wealthy Mr. Glomus's will--and net Johnny a hefty reward in the bargain. Although his neighbor Professor Childermass warns him to stay away from the Glomus mansion, Johnny can't resist a challenge. Soon he's alone in the deserted house...with one of the undead at his heels!

_The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt_ brings back Johnny Dixon, one of John Bellairs' three main protagonists (Lewis Barnavelt and Anthony Monday being the others) as well as his friend Professor Childermass and new friend Fergie. In his second adventure, Johnny searches for the lost will of H. Bagwell Glomus, a wealthy cereal magnate who dabbled in the black arts and was more than a little off his rocker. Whoever finds the will would receive a $10,000 reward from the estate and Johnny, following the clues, is determined to claim the reward.

Bellairs is certainly a master of suspense, and creating scenes of real mystery and fright is one of his specialties; however, _The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt_ is more devoted to the deduction show more aspect of the tale, rather than the suspenseful atmosphere. Certainly, there is a menacing ghost, the creepy Glomus estate and a sinister villain, but the bulk of the novel tells of Johnny's family troubles and a pretty mundane detectery, and while Johnny gets some real character development, the story seems to be plainer because of it. In addition to this, Johnny pretty much takes care of things all by his lonesome, and I would have liked to see more of the irascible Professor and the new chum Fergie.

However, I don't mean to imply at all that the novel is sub-par. As I mentioned above, Bellairs is a master of suspense, and there is more than one suspenseful moment our protagonist must face. Bellairs is also quite good at creating believable, sympathetic characters--especially the relationships between young, bookish kids and older, eccentric adults (a lot of kids who read a lot rather than involve themselves in more expected kids' activities often find it hard to blend in with the crowd, but love to talk with the local teacher or librarian; also, we might, especially today, find a friendship between a kid and an older adult suspect and potentially sinister, yet Bellairs makes such a friendship easy to accept and value).

_The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt_ is not one of the better Johnny Dixon stories, but it's still a good addition to the series, and worth checking out. Four stars. show less

Children's fiction. Mystery/adventure. A decent mystery that should charm kids that are into such things. The story centers mainly on the missing will and not so much on the mummy or the crypt, but the story is appropriately spooky for the month of October.

I wanted to love this, never having read John Bellairs before, but... eh. It didn't light my world on fire. The ending didn't address many of the questions I had... I dunno. I'll probably read more, but this sadly didn't wow me.