Review: Weatherend "Weak Beginning...Galloping Conclusion"

Book review: The Dark Secret of Weatherend

A weak beginning and a galloping conclusion enclose an entertaining and satisfactorily scary tale. In a sequel to The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn young Anthony Monday and his indomitable librarian friend, Miss Eells, once again tackle the mysteries and the fiendish villains to which the small town of Hoosac, Minnesota, seems unusually prone. The late J. K. Borkman's reasons for wanting to finish off the world - and incidentally his own home in Hoosac - in an apocalyptic storm are barely credible, and the impetus for Miss Eells's involvement is not entirely clear. Yet the lock-picking librarian does break into J. K.'s deserted carriage house, removes a box he has hidden there, and perhaps deserves all the devilish terror that J. K.'s son Anders doles out in the form of ghastly apparitions, a whirlwind of stinging leaves, and an unseasonable blizzard. Only by some good-and some bad-fortune and by their masterly unraveling of clues do Miss Eells and Tony arrive at J. K.'s sinister mausoleum and successfully outwit the evil Anders. The small-town setting is attractive; and if Miss Eells's actions are more spirited than logical, the story still offers engrossing entertainment.

Ethel R. Twichell
Horn Book Magazine, Vol. LX, No. 3, June, 1984, p. 326.