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A drop of blood, a dark and creepy something, the ancient scroll of a mysterious sorceress who met her death one cold Halloween night -- these are the elements that draw Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger into their most spine-tingling adventure ever!
It all starts out so innocently, with the two friends groaning over their mandatory appearance in the school talent show. Though they diligently research their act at the splendid National Museum of Magic, their magical mishaps cause a strange and unsettling change in Rose Rita. She grows increasingly remote and cold, spellbound in a sway of forces she is powerless to resist.
With Rose Rita ever more ensnared in a web of sorcery, vengeance, and spooky creatures from beyond the grave, Lewis, his uncle Jonathan, and their friendly witch neighbor Mrs. Zimmermann must band together to save their friend from a deadly doom! But will their actions be enough to save her from the specter's fiendish grip? Or will they all share her horrifying fate?
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"Dinner was a succulent, perfectly browned roast, so tender that it practically melted in Lewis's mouth, together with luscious, buttery whipped potatoes that were just right, not too dry and not too gloopy. Uncle Jonathan used a ladle to make a little well in the top of each mound of mashed potatoes, and he poured in some rich brown gravy." [insert Homer Simpson "Mmmm...browned roast, butter whipped potatoes, and gravy" sound byte here] |
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Dangblasted eight-legged creepy-crawly thingamajigees!
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"No," said a strange, breathy voice, a woman's voice. "Running away is no good, not with your powers. Use your strength. Teach these unworthy ones a lesson."
Rose Rita could not see anyone who might have spoken. Twirling slowly in the air, Rose Rita asked, "Who is that?"
"A friend." Now Rose Rita could tell that the voice was in her mind, and not coming from outside. "Drop down, down, and take one of them. Take Sue. That will show them!"
Rose Rita grinned. Yes, that would show them! She'd snatch Sue right off the ground and scare the daylights out of her. Rose Rita began to drop lower, lower, slowly, and then she stretched out her long, shiny, hairy arms --
Eight of them!
Rose Rita looked down at herself and screamed in terror. She wasn't flying -- she was dangling from a spiderweb. Her body had become a huge bloated thing, hairy and blue-black and round as a ball. She opened her mouth to scream, and she found she could make only a hissing noise. Thick green venom drolled out of her mouth.
She had become a giant spider!
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| "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" courtesy Jonathan Abucejo. |
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This is the seventh book in the Lewis Barnavelt series.
Three real boys from Marshall won the right to be included in The Specter from the Magician's Museum. Brad Strickland, in Marshall to do some research, was speaking at an area school when during a question and answer session a student asked if he could be in the next book. "I thought about it, then made up a trivia quiz of around fifty questions and made them available through the Ann La Pietra's book store. There was a time deadline, and when we checked the answers, three people had tied, with only one wrong each." The three winners of The Great John Bellairs Trivia Contest were Chad Britton [page 111, 149], Chris Walsh [page 109-11], and James Gensterblum [page 48-9] in roles they themselves helped to create.
Contrary to the cover of the new paperback edition released in August 2004, this book does not feature Johnny Dixon.
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| Stats |
Author: Brad Strickland (51)
Published: March 1998
Chapters: 16
Pages: 149
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| Awards |
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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 |
For Bob and Elaine Lund, whose museum shows that the secret of magic is people.
Brad Strickland: The story grew out of the fact that Bob and Elaine Lund's wonderful American Museum of Magic is located in Marshall," Brad Strickland says. "Elaine very kindly allowed Barbara and me backstage at the museum on our most recent trip to Marshall, and much of the detail that you'll be reading in the book is based on fact. There is even a cemetery twenty miles from Marshall much like the cemetery in the book -- except that, as far as I know, it does NOT contain a haunted Egyptian tomb. My editor thought it was one of the scariest yet -- but to be fair, she has a thing about spiders.
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