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Johnny lay still on the hospital bed. He was under an oxygen tent. His eyes were closed and his half-open mouth was curled into an ugly sneer....
Thirteen-year-old Johnny Dixon, possessed by the ghost of the evil Warren Windrow, is dying. And it seems as if there is nothing anyone can do. In a desperate effort to save Johnny's life, his two best friends, Professor Childermass and Fergie, race to the Windrow estate, hoping by some miracle to find something -- anything -- they can use to free him. There, as demonic forces surround and threaten them, they are caught in a most horrifying fight for their own survival.
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Edward Gorey's chilling back cover of a twisted stain-glass window is my all-time favorite! |
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How Zebulon's hooded, tentacled familiar deals with barking dogs...ghastly! |
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At first he just stared at the schoolhouse. Then he moved closer, and he noticed a wooden plaque, with Hebrew letters set in a wreath of golden rays, over the door. The door opened, and Johnny went inside. It was cold and dark and musty smelling. At the far end of the room a tall, ornate candlestick stood next to an oblong block that looked like an altar. In the middle of the altar lay a grayish lump, and as Johnny moved closer to see what the thing was, moonlight flooded the room. Glancing quickly to his left, Johnny saw three tall stained-glass windows. The one on the left showed a hooded figure in a long black robe. The face of the figure was completely hidden by the hood, and something that looked like an octopus tentacle dangled from the left sleeve. The window on the right was filled by a menacing shape of an angel dressed like a Roman soldier. He wore a golden breastplate and carried a shield, and in his upraised right hand was a sword of flickering orange flame. The angel's eyes were wide and unearthly, and they were staring relentlessly at Johnny. They seemed to be burning holes in his brain. With a violent effort, Johnny tore his eyes away from the angel's gaze and looked at the middle window. Before him, lit by the moonlight, was the picture of a gaunt old man in a shimmering blue gown. In one hand the old man held a skull, and in the other a sroll on which the words ZEBULON PATRIARCHA were printed. Like the angel, the old man had wide, hypnotic eyes, and as Johnny stared into them, he heard a faint whispery noise. Suddenly the old man was standing before him on the dusty floor of the room. Johnny stood paralyzed -- he couldn't move a muscle. The old man began to speak, and his words seemed to burst inside Johnny's brain.
I am Zebulon Windrow, said the harsh, grating voice. You have done great wrong to a member of my family. I seek vengeance, and vengeance I will have. Know that the spirit of Warren Windrow still walks the earth. Be warned, foolish child!
And with that the old man vanished, and the room was plunged into darkness. Instantly Johnny heard a horrible rustling sound, like the fluttering of a million insect wings, echoing all around him. Feelers brushed across his body and his face, and he began frantically waving his arms and yelling. The angry buzzing got louder and louder.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly courtesy Jonathan Abucejo. |
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This is the fourth book in the Johnny Dixon series.
This book is the only direct sequel of the proceeding book, picking up the Windrow saga as started in The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull.
There is a difference in the artwork Edward Gorey created for the original 1985 hardcover dust jacket (image below, top) and the 1986 Bantam Skylark paperback. On the original hardcover, the name of the antagonist, Zebulon Windrow, appears as "ZABULON." The paperback version plainly shows that an "E" has replaced the "A" in the first name. Odder still is that the following letter, the "B," was changed as well; the original "B" looks suspiciously like an "R," or like the bottom loop of the "B" was not completely closed.
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| Did you know: the church on the Windrow estate is an American duplicate of the Cathedral of Saint Mary – better known as Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England – complete with 400-foot medieval spire? |
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| Statistics |
Author: John Bellairs (47)
Published: November 1985
Publishing history
Chapters: 15 | Pages: 147
Awards | Reviews | Annotations |
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| Adaptations |
There are no known adaptations of this work. |
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| Allusions |
None known. |
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| Dedication |
In memory of my grandfather John Monk.
John Bellairs acquired his reading habits and his love for literature and history from books originally belonging to one of his grandfathers. Bellairs himself said that his heroes have elderly, eccentric friends because "my grandfather was very close to me when I was little; he taught me to read and was a model of kindness and friendship that inspires me even now." |
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