Product Description

When Professor Childermass lends a collection of artifacts to a local museum, a "collector" named Mattheus Mergal appears, demanding to see it. Mergal aims to steal a wooden hand with the power to raise the dead, and if he gets his hands on it, no one will be able to stop him from terrorizing the world. Can Johnny and the professor halt him in time? "A spellbinding tale." -- School Library Journal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #343415 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8?Thirteen-year-old Johnny Dixon is back in this new adventure written by Strickland in the manner of John Bellairs. It's summer in the 1950s, and Johnny, as always, is living in Duston Heights, MA. He is able to get a job at the Gudge Museum with the help of his friend, Professor Childermass, and the professor's donation of a collection of bizarre artifacts made by the evil wizard Esdrias Blackleash during the time of the Salem witch trials. When Mattheus Mergal shows up from Boston looking to steal the collection's wooden hand, the story's pace speeds up, suspense escalates, and the supernatural fun begins. Complete with a haunted house, nightmares, wild storms, snakes, near-death by lightning, and even Johnny's imprisonment in a small, decorative snow globe, the story of Mergal's intent to raise his dead ancestor, the self-styled Emperor of the World, is stylistically a treat as well, full of foreshadowing and figurative language. Just as Duston Heights attracts eerie people like magnets, so will young pre-Stephen King fans be attracted to this spellbinding tale.?Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4^-6. Strickland adds another volume to the rapidly growing number of books based on characters created by the late John Bellairs. Johnny Dixon and cranky Professor Childermass are the stars here, with Strickland pitting them against a diabolical 1950s wizard, Mattheus Mergel, who is trying to cement his power by resurrecting the spirit of a seventeenth-century warlock. The plot definitely won't stand a close inspection, but the characters are true to form, and the atmosphere and genre conventions--including slithering snakes, deadly thunderstorms, and weird visions--are horrific enough to keep the pages turning. Stephanie Zvirin

From Kirkus Reviews
At first, Johnny's most serious problems are right out of the textbook for the budding adolescent: How will he survive the summer without his friend Fergie (he makes a new sandlot pal, Sarah Channing), and what will rescue him from boredom (a job Professor Childermass finds him at the town's Gudge Museum). When Mattheus Mergal, a black-clad, sinister man, appears at the museum and steals some enchanted artifacts, Johnny and Sarah launch their own witch hunt. Some frightening apparitions, terrifying nightmares, and deadly lightning bolts are visited upon the young sleuths, but they remain undaunted. When Mergal kidnaps Professor Childermass to obtain the final talisman he needs, the teens grapple with the necromancer in a battle that will leave one of them lost in the land of the dead for all time. Strickland, in his first solo work featuring the characters created by John Bellairs, leads readers on an entertaining frolic. There are enough well-placed frissons to keep readers flipping those pages, even those who know that, in keeping with series formula, all nefarious plans will be nixed. (Fiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Brad Strickland's First and Best.
Out of all of the six Bellairs/Strickland books published thus far, "The Hand of the Necromancer" still remains the best. Even though Brad Strickland was bold to say the least with this one, he managed to pull off an excellent story line and introduce a new character to boot while still including all of the original Bellairs magic and charm.

The dust jacket design by Edward Gorey is one of the best - the hand and globe on the front immediately tell an important part of the story without even having to open the book, and the illustration on the back of Johnny, the Professor and Sarah at the park with Mattheus Mergal in the background brandishing his staff is marvelously done. We will sourly miss you, Mr. Gorey!

If you decide to read any of the Bellairs/Strickland books, make this one the first title you pick up. It'll set a good mood for the next five. Also check out the other four titles written by John Bellairs and completed by Strickland...

A wonderful transition from Bellairs to Strickland
First off, Strickland had transferred the Bellairs characters with no trouble at all. The transition was so smooth I was wondering whether or not the first half of the book had been written by John Bellairs himself. Readers won't be disappointed.

The introduction of Sarah, who could be the future love interest of Johnny Dixon, also went well, although one wishes that she were more feminine and less boyish-John's books had the distinction of having very little contacts with girls and more with the rough and tumble boys. Sarah's personality and disposition are definitely of the latter, so I do wish she could be more unique than that. Even so, she is an interesting character to watch for.

Now, the plot of the story was a little less exciting than I would hope. It was a little too simple, too concise, too mundane. Something creepier, something darker, something lurking in the shadows would have made it "all better".

And the climax of the book left something to be desired. The Doom of the Haunted Opera had this same problem. A little more spice, a little more excitement, a little more tension like someone plucking the strings of a tightly winded violin would have helped greatly.

In conclusion, this book is lacking in some ways but comes up well in others. Every now and then, certain aspects of the book just seem to almost reach that line that marks where Bellairs crossed, and then stop. But still, this book warrants reading and Brad Strickland was probably the best choice to follow-up to John Bellairs.

Fairly good spooky thriller
There may have been only one John Bellairs, but Brad Strickland hits pretty close to the mark. Although it lacks in some areas, it overall gets the feeling of a Bellairs kids' thriller, full of the various ghoulish visions and villains and offbeat humor.

Johnny Dixon is quite depressed when his best friend Fergie leaves for a while. In an effort to cheer his friend up, Professor Childermass gets a job for Johnny at the Gudge Museum, where he has just donated several artifacts from the malignant wizard Esdrias Leach. Among them is a lightweight wooden hand -- which grips Johnny's fingers when he touches it. He's frightened, but it seems harmless otherwise -- and the professor begins to have nightmares about it.

After Johnny takes the job, things begin to go wrong. A strange man comes to the museum to see the artifacts, and seems to know a great deal about Esdrias Leach and his sorcerous ways. Matthias Mergal continues pursuing the artifacts, until the museum is robbed. Now the only people who can hope to stop Mergal are Johnny, the professor, and his new friend Sarah.

In many ways, this fits easily into the Bellairs mold. There is a sinister, talkative villain who lurks around the edges until the climax, weird dreams and visions, hideous magic and weird artifacts that are linked to the main plot. Strickland seems to have a good grasp on the correct pacing, descriptions, and dialogue without ever becoming cheesy or cliched. Sometimes his references to things in the 1950s (such as the "Howdy Doody" show) are a little too forced, as if he's trying very hard to place it in the correct time frame.

Johnny is a little more highly-strung than one would expect, but otherwise is well-characterized. The Professor is delightfully crabby and knowledgeable, as always. The main stumbling block is Sarah, but seems like a pale copy of the rough-edged, athletic Rose Rita. I think Fergie would have suited the plot far better. Mergal is a classic Bellairs-type villain, with insanely dark intentions and a very spooky manner.

Despite its flaws and the rather anemic Sarah, "Hand of the Necromancer is a good, spooky read by a talented author. Just so long as Sarah isn't brought back, Strickland will do fine.