Review: Weatherend "Resulting Terror Is Pure Bellairs"

Book review: The Dark Secret of Weatherend

John Bellairs is a name sure to set a gothic horror lover's heart beating in joyful anticipation of marvelous characters in weird wondrous stories thick with atmosphere, thrills and suspense. His latest book will not disappoint. Anthony Monday and his friend Miss Eells, who readers first met in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn, make a welcome return in The Dark Secret of Weatherend. This time the offbeat duo is pitted against the son of the late J. K. Borkman. The younger Borkman is an evil wizard who is trying to destroy humanity by causing savage weather conditions. To stop Borkman, Anthony and Miss Eells must violate the elder Borkman's spooky crypt. The resulting terror is pure Bellairs. Anthony and Miss Eels may not be the memorable characters that John Dixon and Professor Childermass are in The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt, but they're no slouches either. Readers will relish this one and they will be sorry to see it end.

Drew Stevenson
School Library Journal,
Vol. 30, No. 9, May, 1984, p. 103.