The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder (Lewis Barnavelt Series #5)

by John Bellairs, Brad Strickland

Overview

Something evil has taken over…
 
Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle are in England, visiting a cousin at Barnavelt Manor. Lewis quickly becomes friends with the housekeeper’s son, and as the two boys explore a garden maze, Lewis accidentally unleashes demonic forces that summon the ghost of an evil wizard bent on destroying his entire family.  Can Lewis fight the maniacal wizard, or will all the Barnavelts perish?
 
* “Chock-full of deliciously spooky details and narrated in a voice that is as cozy as it is ornery, this tale is utterly spellbinding.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
 
“The well-devised plot and the spooky atmosphere will please the series' many fans as well as new readers who like their mystery stories scary.”
—Booklist
 
“Satisfyingly hair-raising.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Books by John Bellairs:
 
The Doom of the Haunted Opera
The Figure In the Shadows
The Ghost in the Mirror
The House With a Clock In Its Walls
The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
The Mansion in the Mist
The Specter From the Magician's Museum
The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn
The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101659779
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/01/1995
Series:	Lewis Barnavelt Series , #5
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	895,689
File size:	372 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

John Anthony Bellairs (1938–1991) is an award-winning American author, perhaps best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost. He is also the author of many gothic mystery novels for children and young adults, including The House with a Clock in its Walls (which received both the New York Times Outstanding Book of Award and the American Library Association Children's Books of International Interest Award), The Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb (which won the Edgar Allen Poe Award), and The Specter from the Magician’s Museum (which won the New York Public Library "Best Books for the Teen Age" Award.

Editorial Reviews

Lewis Barnavelt, the plump worrywart and Sherlock Holmes aficionado last seen in The Letter, the Witch and the Ring , is making a grand tour of Europe with crotchety Uncle Jonathan. The trip culminates with a surprise visit to their ``umpteenth cousin, who-knows-how-many times removed,'' Pelham Barnavelt, who resides in genteel post-WW II poverty in the family seat, Barnavelt Manor. Together with his new-found English friend, Bertie (the blind son of Cousin Pelham's housekeeper), Lewis explores the overgrown maze on the manor's grounds. When they discover an ancient map--hidden, in classic Bellairs style, in the bindings of a crumbling book--the boys wend their way to the secret center of the maze, where a powerful evil force has long been imprisoned. Overweight, bookish and naturally timid, Lewis is nevertheless capable of true bravery; his endearing character, along with the novel's underlying current of melancholy, makes this much more than run-of-the-mill supernatural entertainment. Chock-full of deliciously spooky details and narrated in a voice that is as cozy as it is ornery, this tale is utterly spellbinding. Although Strickland (who also completed The Ghost in the Mirror ) serves him well, the late Bellairs will be greatly missed. Ages 10-up. ( Sept .)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This ghost story, finished by Brad Strickland after Bellairs' death, is the fourth in the series featuring Lewis Barnavelt and his magician uncle, an appealing duo who first appeared in "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" (1973). When Uncle Jonathan takes his nephew to England to visit a distant cousin at their ancestral home, Lewis unwittingly releases a ghost who cursed his family centuries before and now threatens to destroy them. Summoning his wits and courage, Lewis saves the day. The characters may be two-dimensional, but the well-devised plot and the spooky atmosphere will please the series' many fans as well as new readers who like their mystery stories scary.

Carolyn Phelan