Anthony Monday Mysteries

Anthony Monday doesn't have many friends, and his home life is a wreck. But he does have Miss Eells, the librarian at the Hoosac Public Library, and he has an adventure waiting for him right around the corner. When Miss Eells gives Anthony a job at the library, he thinks he'll just be dusting shelves and filing books. Instead, he discovers a hidden clue leading to the treasure of eccentric millionaire Alpheus Winterborn. Miss Eells thinks the clues are a practical joke left by the odd, old Winterborn before he died. But if that's the case, then why do things start getting so scary so quickly? The closer they get to solving the mystery, the closer Winterborn's evil nephew Hugo Philpotts lurks in the shadows, waiting to snatch the treasure out of their hands. This first book in John Bellairs's Anthony Monday Mystery series will have young readers on the edge of their seats, desperate to race ahead to the story's final surprise.

From his adventures in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn teenager Anthony Monday returns to take on a storm of sorcery. Anthony can always count on his friend, sixty-eight-year-old librarian Miss Eells, to break up Hoosac's hot summer days with some adventure or other, but this one takes the cake. On their way to get ice cream, they make a side trip to the abandoned mansion of the late J. K. Borkman, a once rich and weird eccentric who was obsessed with the weather. When Anthony finds a diary there, the pages seemed filled with the ramblings of a crazy old man, until Borkman's son starts fixing up the dilapidated house-and the storms come. Hail, lightning, and dangerous winds descend upon Hoosac. And when Anthony and Miss Eells connect the wild weather to the diary, they uncover a diabolical plan, black magic, and a son more than willing to finish what his father started . . . "A wild, ghoulish plot . . . There's a nice balance most of the way through between folksy charm and gently intense suspense." -Kirkus Reviews "The atmosphere Bellairs creates is creepy and a little chilling . . . So, wait for a dark and stormy night, grab a blanket and a flashlight and enjoy this eerie mystery." -SF Site "Fast, witty and intricate entertainment." -Publishers Weekly "Pure Bellairs." -School Library Journal

A murderous surprise comes to light in this thrilling mystery featuring teenager Anthony Monday, from the author of The Dark Secret of Weatherend. Ever since librarian Myra Eells bought an antique oil lamp, weird things have started to happen in Hoosac-including the murder of a high school maintenance man. Anthony Monday is convinced it's haunted, but Miss Eells thinks he's just being silly-until she sees a terrifying vision. When they call in Miss Eells's brother for help, they learn that the lamp has been stolen from the strange tomb of a Wisconsin lawyer who was involved with the occult. Convinced that evil forces exist inside the lamp, the trio plans to return it to the underground vault. But someone else will do whatever it takes to steal the lamp-and unleash a dark and ancient power upon the world . . . "Half-mockingly using the colloquial style made familiar in such series books as the Nancy Drew stories, Bellairs keeps the action moving right along." -Kirkus Reviews

Anthony Monday takes a vacation to another world in this mind-blowing mystery from the author of The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb. Summer is here and Anthony Monday has been asked to join his friend Miss Eells and her brother Emerson on a vacation to northern Canada, where Emerson owns a no-frills cottage on an island. School may be out, but there's still a riddle to be solved: A few years ago, three tourists visiting the cottage disappeared without a trace . . . The cottage has no electricity, but it's humming with strange sounds and illusions. Before long, Anthony finds a disappearing chest that turns out to be a portal to another world-a realm populated by evil human-like creatures who want to drag Earth and its inhabitants into their dimension. As Anthony, Miss Eells, and Emerson try to come up with a plan to save the world, they are faced with their own intruder: a visitor from the other side with vengeance on his mind . . . "The atmosphere throughout this adventuresome chiller is appropriately scary and the villains are certainly evil personified." -School Library Journal "Bellairs's characters have a captivating charm that adds to this spellbinding adventure." -VOYA "Throwing in plenty of conventional ingredients (ghosts, illusions, cryptic clues, secret passages, magic amulets, a witches' sabbath, cliffhangers, last-instant rescues, etc.), Bellairs dishes up a broth spiced with action [and] suspense." -Kirkus Reviews "While the notion of passage into another world is not new, the late Bellairs provides unique twists." -Publishers Weekly