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| Rose Rita leaned forward with a stick and prodded what looked like a rock beneath the murky water. At once, the tree branch began to thrash wildly. A writhing tentacle had wrapped around it. Then something broke the surface of the water. And it opened a ghastly eye...
What is it about the old Wilder Creek Bridge? Even after it's torn down -- especially after it's torn down -- why does it continue to exude a sense of deadly menace that arouses Lewis Barnavelt's curiosity... and his deepest fears? Unable to resist the lure of its mysteries, Lewis and his best friend, Rose Rita Pottinger, discover both shocking secrets and a monster so terrible that even the efforts of Lewis, Rose Rita, Uncle Jonathan, and the magical Mrs. Zimmermann may not be enough to save themselves -- and all humankind -- from its ferocious grasp! |
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This book's all about the continuity... s'got its roots in the one that started it all... The House with the Clock in Its Walls! |
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Because of his untimely death, this is the last Edward Gorey illustrated cover & frontispiece... rest in peace, sir... you surely will be missed. |
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"Lewis knew Rose Rita's suffocating fear of tight spaces was overpowering her. He dropped the wooden box and thrust his hands down to her again. He felt her grab his wrists, and he hauled back. Rose Rita's head and shoulders popped out of the hole. She let go with her left hand and pushed down against the ground. With her shoving and Lewis pulling, somehow they hoisted her free.
"Rose Rita could not stop shivering. "Ugh! It was so d-dark down th-there, and it smelled like it had been closed off for a h-hundred years!"
Lewis heard something behind him. A dry, rustling sound, like crackly old paper being slowly crunched. A hoarse, wheezing hhaahhhh sound, as if something were breathing its last. Rose Rita looked over his shoulder toward the barn. She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and filled with terror.
Feeling as if his heart were climbing right into his mouth, Lewis forced himself to turn.
Something was trying to walk from the ruined old barn.
Something big and gray and lurching.
Once it might have been a horse.
Now it was a lumpy, dry, silvery shape. As its misshapen forleg tried to take a step, chunks of grainy flesh fell away in a shower of flakes. The smooth brittle bones splintered. The mouth parted and horrible moaning sounds came out. The eye sockets were empty, but to Lewis they seemed to plead for an ending -- for death. |
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| "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" courtesy Jonathan Abucejo. |
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| This is the eighth book in the Lewis Barnavelt series.
The book's proposed title was The Bane of the Wizard's Bridge, according to Brad Strickland, but, "Someone in Editorial decided 'bane' was too hard a word for the age group. I kind of liked it myself, though."
Edward Gorey died in April 2000, just a month after the book was published, thereby ending a quarter-century association with the work of John Bellairs. His wrap-around cover and frontispiece for this book were his last completed bookwork. |
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| Stats |
Author: Brad Strickland (53)
Published: March 2000
Chapters: 15
Pages: 151
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| Awards |
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| Adaptations |
None known. |
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| Allusions |
None known. |
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| Dedication |
For Barbara, with all my love.
Brad Strickland: "Barbara, my wife of more than thirty years, and I had a bad scare while I was working on the book, and Barbara had to have a serious operation. She came through with flying colors, made a remarkable recuperation, and emerged as good as new--but the concern and worry of the months leading up to the operation made me aware that I had not told her that I loved her enough. I'm still working on it." |
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