John Bellairs Books in Order

Bellairs's debut is a comic collection of mock saints' lives, church satire, and deadpan religious parody. The title piece invents the wonderfully absurd St. Fidgeta, patron saint of restless children, and sets the tone for the rest.

In this odd little fable, the pompous wizard Snodrog tries to master the world through rules, logic, and traps. Then the cheerful, chaotic Shuffly arrives and ruins every tidy plan he makes.

When dark magic starts closing in, the wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon set out to find the enemy behind it. What begins like a quest fantasy turns steadily stranger and more frightening as the danger gets personal.

Orphaned Lewis Barnavelt moves to Uncle Jonathan's house in New Zebedee and learns the adults around him practice magic. Then he discovers the house hides a deadly clock built by evil sorcerers, and stopping it becomes a race against time.

Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita stumble into a family mystery filled with old secrets and a lurking presence that seems to move just beyond the light. New Zebedee starts feeling far less safe once the shadows begin to follow them home.

Rose Rita's dull summer changes fast when she joins Mrs. Zimmermann on a trip tied to a dead relative, a deserted farm, and a missing ring with real power. The deeper they dig, the darker the magic gets.

Anthony Monday takes a job at the library to help his family and soon finds clues to a hidden fortune left by eccentric millionaire Alpheus Winterborn. A greedy rival is hunting the treasure too, and the search turns dangerous fast.

Johnny Dixon does not believe the ghost stories about Father Baart until a scroll, a blue figurine, and a mysterious ring drag him into real danger. What starts in a church basement becomes a full-blown supernatural chase.

Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass search for the hidden will of an eccentric cereal tycoon. The trail leads to a deserted mansion, buried grudges, and something undead that does not want them leaving with answers.

After Anthony Monday and Miss Eells explore the crumbling Weatherend estate, violent magical storms begin tearing across the region. To stop them, they have to uncover what the Borkman family left behind.

An old clock, a vanished professor, and a tiny skull with terrible power send Johnny Dixon into one of his darkest cases. The search pulls him toward an isolated island and an enemy with deep roots in the past.

Johnny Dixon, Fergie, and Professor Childermass are drawn into a dangerous case involving an old magician, buried secrets, and a ghost that refuses to stay buried. The clues come fast, but so does the danger.

A scientist named Evaristus Sloane has built a baseball-playing robot, but the machine needs human eyes to work. When Johnny becomes the target, the case turns from weird to horrifying in a hurry.

A strange antique lamp brings apparitions, a dead watchman, and a trail of occult trouble into Anthony Monday's life. To make things right, Anthony and Miss Eells must learn why the lamp was never meant to be lit.

A strange will sends Johnny, Fergie, and Professor Childermass to a bleak estate for the summer. Waiting there is a madman, a sinister game, and a plan that could put far more than their own lives at risk.

Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass discover a trolley that does not stay in the present. Their ride sends them back to Constantinople in 1453, where history itself becomes part of the danger.

When Father Higgins claims a ghost is trying to contact him, Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass expect a puzzle. Instead they find possession, an ancient enemy, and a fight that reaches all the way to England.

A summer trip to a lonely Canadian island turns strange when Anthony Monday and the Eells siblings find a chest that opens the way to another world. Soon they are facing a plot that threatens people back on Earth.

Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmermann head into a family mystery where an old mirror, local rumors, and a long-buried grudge start pointing to real magic. Lewis and Uncle Jonathan join the fight when the haunting turns serious.

Lewis, Rose Rita, and Uncle Jonathan face the return of Malachiah Pruitt, a witch-hunter from centuries past whose ghost brings fear and accusation to New Zebedee. It is a puzzle-filled case with real supernatural teeth.

Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass try to save the elderly Dr. Coote, only to find themselves up against a menacing voodoo cult. The case is short, sharp, and full of mounting dread.

Lewis finds an old opera score that is really an elaborate spell, and the wrong people are determined to perform it. If the music is completed, the dead may rise to serve a villain with plans for New Zebedee and beyond.

Johnny Dixon faces another brush with dark magic when a necromancer's shadow falls across his circle of friends. With Fergie and Professor Childermass beside him, he has to stop the dead from becoming somebody else's tools.

Fergie steals an enchanted book from the library and slowly falls under the spell of the evil sorcerer Jarmyn Thanatos. Johnny and Professor Childermass have to save him before the magic takes full hold.

Johnny Dixon's father falls into a coma, and Johnny is sure a malevolent force is behind it. With Fergie and Professor Childermass, he has to fight through a weird otherworld to bring him back.

This anthology gathers Bellairs's adult fantasy and comic work in one place, including The Face in the Frost, The Dolphin Cross, The Pedant and the Shuffly, and St. Fidgeta. It is a handy map to the stranger, funnier side of his writing.

Three brothers discover a battered gargoyle in a dump, and their ordinary summer tilts into something noisy, magical, and dangerous. The creature can talk, breathe fire, and drag them into an adventure they did not ask for.