A flu epidemic ushers in a plague of dark magic in this spooktastic mystery featuring teenage sleuth Johnny Dixon from The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost. Though forty miles away, Duston Heights is not safe from the flu that's raging through Boston. When Johnny Dixon's grandmother falls ill, he's sent to live with his neighbor to avoid infection. So many locals are getting sick that school is canceled for a week, and the reclusive Dr. Abram Ashburn comes out of retirement to make house calls. After seeing a scary vision of his bedridden grandmother outside of a window, Johnny starts to feel on edge. Then he and his best friend find what looks to be a weird map of a cemetery in Dr. Ashburn's house. One specific grave is marked with an "X," the burial place of a woman who practiced witchcraft in the seventeenth century. The townspeople recover from the flu, but they can't escape the terrifying illusions and shadow people that now haunt them, unless Johnny and his friends find the key to unlock the secrets of the graveyard before a dreadful prophecy comes to pass . . . Praise for The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost "Fans of the series will enjoy this new supernatural adventure, which reads so much like Bellairs's books that they won't believe he didn't write it." --School Library Journal "Strickland's story is eerie, suspenseful, and true to the personalities and writing style of Bellairs, who began the Johnny Dixon series . . . This is good reading for adventure enthusiasts as well as for series fans." --Booklist

From Bad to worse...
Landslides, a deadly climate, and the increasingly unpredictable weather of Mars make survival nearly impossible, but the most immediate problem facing the Marsport colonists is the dwindling water supply. The group decides to onstruct an automated station in a rift valley where ice accumulated from the atmosphere will be melted and moved through warming pipelines to Marsport.
The kids of the Asimov Project participate in the work, but then a fierce storm hits and a team that includes Jenny is isolated and lost. Despite orders not to leave Marsport, Sean puts together a group of kids to go out and find the team. As the race to save the missing colonists becomes increasingly dangerous -- and pits Sean against Amanda and the administration of the colony -- Sean quickly learns that schisms within the social order are almost as deadly as Mars itself.

There's no turning back. The year is 2085, and a new teen has arrived at Mars Experimental Station One, a colony built to test humans' ability to live self-sufficiently in an alien and hostile environment. Already in existence for ten years, "Marsport" is a functioning city of two thousand people -- with only twenty teenagers. These teens, part of the controversial Asimov Project, were hand selected from the billions on Earth and are always under the watchful eyes of the adults. The newcomer, Sean, is a fifteen-year-old orphan who acts tough but secretly thinks he can't measure up to the others. His companions are Jenny, also fifteen, an ethereal blond whose frail looks belie her fierce intelligence, and Alex, a fourteen-year-old pilot in training who doesn't always know his boundaries. They each have reasons to doubt themselves...and distrust each other. But one thing is certain: Mars offers them something Earth never could. When the existence of Marsport is suddenly threatened, the group must overcome their fears and join forces, for their survival depends on nothing less.

Five months into their undercover search for the pirate Jack Steele, Captain Hunter and the Aurora head for the island of Tortuga to put in for repairs after a battle with a deadly Spanish ship. Davy Shea, now fifteen years old and accepted by the Aurora's crew, continues to help his uncle Patch in the ship's surgery, but Captain Hunter has a special mission for him.

The Captain has learned that captured British officers are being held on the island for ransom from the Crown, and he is determined to rescue those officers, even risking the Aurora's cover. As a servant boy, Davy can easily pass among the various pirate groups thriving on Tortuga.

But as Davy begins to uncover the many secrets and deceptions that shroud this beautiful island, he soon realizes that more is at stake than the lives of a few captured officers. A plan is in the works that will force the pirate hunters on the Aurora to make new alliances...and bring them face to face with former enemies.

In a Massachusetts town, an evil wizard is about to come back from the dead and a young hero must fight to stop him . . . In the days of the Salem witch trials, the sleepy hamlet of Duston Heights had just one practitioner of the dark arts: the notorious necromancer Esdrias Blackleach. As the fever for witch hunting reached its terrible peak, Blackleach was accused of using powerful black magic against his fellow townsfolk. But just before he could be brought to trial, he dropped dead, escaping justice forever. Or so it seemed . . . Fast forward to the 1950s, the inquisitive young sleuth Johnny Dixon and his mentor Professor Childermass are getting ready to donate a box of Blackleach artifacts to the local museum when a descendant of the sorcerer shows up and attempts to steal his ancestor's wooden hand. He has a fiendish plan to raise the old necromancer from the dead, and only Johnny and the professor can stop him and make the town safe from black magic forever. The Johnny Dixon stories, from the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, have been acclaimed for their "believable and likable characters" (The New York Times) and "spine-tingling" supernatural adventure (Publishers Weekly).

A young man fights to save his father from a spirit's curse in the epic finale to a series starring "a terrific hero" (The New York Times) The sea is calm, the air is fresh, and the bobbing boat feels like a living creature underneath Johnny Dixon's feet. Johnny hardly ever sees his father, who trains Air Force pilots in Colorado, and their annual Florida fishing trip is the highlight of his year. They're on their way back to Duston Heights, Massachusetts, where Johnny lives with his grandparents, when a visit to a fortune-teller puts a terrible fright into Johnny. Inside the seer's crystal ball, he sees a grinning ghost who cackles out a fearsome message: "The universe shall be mine!" Johnny tries to forget what he saw, but when he and his father return to Duston Heights, his dad falls into a coma, and Johnny is certain that the ghost is to blame. With the help of his old friend Professor Childermass, Johnny will defeat the smirking ghoul-or never see his father again. The Johnny Dixon series, from the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, is full of fun, adventure, and supernatural chills, along with "believable and likable characters" who are a delight to spend time with (The New York Times).

A young sleuth and his professor friend fight voodoo, black magic, and a hungry zombie horde . . . The drum is small, no bigger than a plastic cup, and decorated with sun-bleached bones. It is a token from the island of St. Ives, whose voodoo cults are infamous around the world, and it is one of the most dangerous objects Johnny Dixon has ever held. When he raps the little drum, the wind howls, and an explosion rocks the house. There are more surprises to come. An inquisitive young man, Johnny has tangled with all manner of supernatural beasts along with his friend Professor Childermass, and now they will confront the living dead. The drum summons up a whirlwind of black magic and throws one of the professor's colleagues into a strange trance. To rescue him, Johnny and the professor must defeat an evil sorceress, and send her zombies back to where they belong. From the author of the Lewis Barnavelt novels, including The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the Johnny Dixon series is full of fun, adventure, and supernatural chills, along with "believable and likable characters" who are a delight to spend time with (The New York Times).

Hidden away in the local library, a sorcerer's book casts an evil spell in a novel by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls Johnny Dixon and his best friend Fergie are whiling away a rainy day at the Duston Heights library when Johnny asks a screwy question: "What's the last book in the library?" After Johnny goes home, Fergie decides to find out. There, under number 999.99, he finds a very peculiar tome, The Book of True Wishes, which is all about Fergie's favorite subject: himself. The book knows Fergie's name, and it promises him everything he ever wanted, which means he is about to forget a very important rule: Be careful what you wish for. When the book puts Fergie under the spell of a mad old wizard, Johnny and his friend Professor Childermass will do whatever it takes to break the book's hold and save their friend. Johnny Dixon and his eccentric professor friend are two of the most delightful characters in literature as well as "an endearing detective team," and their adventures continue to hold readers of all ages spellbound (The New York Times).