The House with a Clock in Its Walls(1973) in-
troduced the recurring character of Chubby Lewis.
Chubby’s uncle recently purchased a sprawling
house filled with secret passages and other wonder-
ful features but that formerly belonged to a sorcerer
who left behind some rather dangerous items as
well. Chubby finds a magic amulet in The Figure in
the Shadows(1975) and initially believes that it is a
sign of good luck, but it in fact carries an ancient
curse. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring(1976) re-
turns to the sorcerer’s house, but Chubby Lewis
gives way to a fresh set of characters. This loosely
constructed trilogy is Bellairs’s most successful
work, but he abandoned the sequence entirely at
that point in favor of a new recurring character.
The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn(1978) in-
troduced Anthony Monday, whose adventures in a
mysterious house were reminiscent of those of
Chubby Lewis. Anthony saves the world from de-
struction by way of another magical act in The
Dark Secret of Weatherend(1984), and yet again in
The Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb(1988). Mansion
in the Mist(1992), the best in the series, sends the
boy into an alternate world whose inhabitants are
plotting to invade our reality. Bellairs mixed fan-
tasy adventure and light humor effectively in the
series but at times seemed to be cannibalizing his
own earlier material.
Another recurring character, Johnny Dixon,
made his debut in The Curse of the Blue Figurine
(1983), in which he acquires a small statue that
bears an inevitable curse. This would prove to be
Bellairs’ most extensive series, with eight volumes
published during his lifetime plus four posthumous
collaborations. The best of these are The Trolley to
Yesterday(1989), which involves time travel, The
Eyes of the Killer Robot(1986), and The Chessmen
of Doom(1984).
Brad Strickland completed several of Bellairs’s
manuscripts after his death, including four with
Johnny Dixons and three new adventures of
Chubby Lewis. The latter three, The Ghost in the
Mirror(1993), Vengeance of the Witchfinder(1993),
and The Doom of the Haunted Opera(1995), are
considerably better than the Dixons. Bellairs was a
steady, skillful writer whose reputation might have
been even greater had he been willing to use a
broader variety of plots.
Bergstrom, Elaine(1946– )
Elaine Bergstrom made her debut with a vampire
romance, Shattered Glass(1989), the first in a se-
ries of novels about the Austras, a family of the un-
dead. Her vampires owe more to the film portrayal
of DRACULA than to the original Bram Stoker
novel, and her heroine is captivated by her inhu-
man lover despite his penchant for draining the
blood of his other acquaintances. The sequel,
Blood Alone(1990), is set against the backdrop of
World War II, with the Austras clan struggling to
protect the secret of their existence amid the chaos
of war. Once again there is a strong romantic ele-
ment, which grows even more pervasive in the
next in the series, Blood Rites(1992). The fourth
installment, Daughter of the Moon(1992), deals
with a nobleman who is seduced by vampirism and
suffers the consequences. At that point Bergstrom
abandoned the series for a time but eventually re-
turned to add a fifth volume, Nocturne(2003). Eu-
rope has become too dangerous a place for the
surviving Austras, so they immigrate to the United
States. Unfortunately, an old enemy is aware of
their movement and follows in what is to date the
best volume in the series.
Not all of Bergstrom’s novels are about vam-
pires. A Tapestry of Dark Souls(1993) is set in the
shared universe of the Ravenloft game system and
involves a tapestry that contains the physical pres-
ence as well as the artistic depiction of various
monsters in its patterns. When the order of monks
guarding the magical tapestry begins to dwindle,
the possibility that the creatures might escape
raises considerable alarm. Baroness of Blood(1995),
also set in the Ravenloft universe, involves an aris-
tocratic vampire and is much less interesting.
In 2004 Bergstrom began using the pseudo-
nym Mira Kiraly for some of her novels. The first
of these, Mina (1994), would later be reissued
under her own name. The novel is a direct sequel
to Dracula(1897) by Bram STOKER. Although
Dracula himself is dead, Mina is still not free of the
taint of his blood. Her struggles to return to nor-
mality are intertwined with a strong romantic
theme in this and the sequel, Blood to Blood
(2000), in which the Harkers are pursued by Drac-
ula’s vengeful sister. The two Mina novels are
Bergstrom’s strongest work. Her remaining twoBergstrom, Elaine 21