History Literature / TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: Fergie tries to do it to Jarmyn Thanatos' "Book of True Wishes", but fails. Professor Childermass threatens Thanatos with burning down his tower to stop him if he has to, but Thanatos taunts him that fire is not the element that can harm him. Fortunately, Johnny figures out the way to stop Thanatos' book, and by extension Thanatos himself, just in time.]]

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude:
** Professor Childermass's father, Marcus, with Tobias Smollett novels -- he named his sons Roderick Random, Humphrey Clinker, Peregrine Pickle and Ferdinand Count Fathom (who usually goes by F.C.F. Childermass); his daughter's name is never mentioned.
** The Windrow Family and their intention to communicate that their family held the Urim and Thummim, but there are only so many names that start with U and T. (And there are no [=IIs=] shown in the list of Windrow's names.)

* OldSoldier: Both Professor Childermass and Father Higgins are war veterans - the professor served in World War I as an intelligence officer (his codename was the Crab, which amuses Henry Dixon when he finds out), and mentions in ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot'' that he changed a tire on an army jeep while being shelled during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. This gets a call-back in ''The Chessmen of Doom'', when he remembers single-handedly charging an enemy machine gun nest during the same battle.

** Major Harrison Dixon also qualifies, being a World War II pilot who returned to action in the Korean War.

* PosthumousCollaboration: ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie''.

* OnOneCondition: In ''The Chessmen of Doom'', Professor Childermass will only inherit his late brother Perry's estate (and 10 million dollars) if he stays there for the summer (June 15 to Labor Day) and keeps the place in shape without any paid help. He winds up violating the terms of the will by going home early, stating that the money isn't worth the risk of sticking around and possibly getting killed by the EvilWizard Edmund Stallybrass. He does get twenty thousand dollars as a consolation prize; ''The Hand of the Necromancer'' reveals that Perry also bequeathed him a collection of items once owned by the wizard Esdrias Blackleach, which come with their own set of dangers.

* WreckedWeapon: In both ''The Trolley to Yesterday'' and ''The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost'', Professor Childermass breaks his Knights of Columbus sword while fighting someone (he even recalls the first incident, stating that "That's the second one of these things I've broken!" in the latter book).

Creator/JohnBellairs' third major series for young readers began in 1983 with ''The Curse of the Blue Figurine'' and its direct sequel ''The Mummy, The Will and the Crypt'', which introduced Johnny Dixon and his friends Professor Roderick Childermass and Byron Q. "Fergie" Ferguson, who lived in Duston Heights, Massachusetts. He published six additional sequels (''The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull'', ''The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost'', ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot'', ''The Trolley to Yesterday'', ''The Chessmen of Doom'' and ''The Secret of the Underground Room'') in his lifetime.

After Bellairs' death, Brad Strickland was hired by Bellairs' son to complete four of his father's unfinished manuscripts, of which one was a Johnny Dixon work, ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'' (1994). After this, Strickland began writing additional novels based on the characters.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted in ''The Mummy, The Will and The Crypt''. H. Bagwell Glomus hid his will inside a stone statue; when his mansion catches on fire and the statue falls into the basement (which is described as having become like a brick oven due to the fire), the statue survives the blaze, but the will itself is burnt to ashes by the heat.

** Dr. Plimico and her FakeBrit husband, Evaristaus Sloane, in ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot''.

** The professor hates being called "Rod", but actually asks Grampa Dixon to call him "Randy" (short for his middle name of "Random") on one occasion; however, this nickname is never brought up again.

* LostWillAndTestament: ''The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt'' has cereal magnate Herbert Bagwell Glomus, whose will was hidden away before his suicide, and Johnny Dixon's desperate hunt for it (he wants the reward money to pay for a brain surgeon for his grandmother, whom he believes to be dying of a brain tumor). His efforts are opposed by Glomus's sister, who wants the will to stay hidden because she fears her brother hadn't left her anything (without a will, she at least got some of his money). Johnny ultimately figures out the will's hiding place; it's destroyed in a fire before it can be read, but his discovery means he still gets the reward money.

** Father Higgins was an army chaplain who served in the Pacific front during World War II, fighting in Guam (among other places), and the war is said to have left him with a permanent case of bad nerves and a violent temper.

* PublicDomainArtifact: The heroes' greatest weapon against the forces of darkness is a small cross, worn on a necklace by a priest, containing two splinters of the True Cross.

* SitcomArchNemesis: Downplayed example, but Professor Childermass has a strong dislike for (and can barely stand to be in the same room as) Dr. Carl Schermerhorn, the Dixon's family doctor, a fat, shambly man who uses bad grammar and tells lousy jokes. The professor tries to be polite to him, but generally regards him as a quack and, when Major Harrison Dixon falls gravely ill in ''The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost'' (his spirit has actually been stolen by an evil entity), the professor forbids him from being involved with the case. However, he has a good reason for all this: Schermerhorn once misdiagnosed the professor's cousin Bea, who was having severe headaches, with bad teeth. It turns out she had a brain tumor, and the misdiagnosis led to her death. Schermerhorn, for his part, doesn't seem to realize how the professor feels about him.

* VeteranInstructor: Having served as a pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, Harrison Dixon becomes an instructor for other fighter pilots after the Korean War ends.

* OldSoldier: Both Professor Childermass and Father Higgins are war veterans - the professor served in World War I as an intelligence officer (his codename was "The Crab", which amuses Henry Dixon when he finds out), and mentions in ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot'' that he changed a tire on one of their vehicles while being shelled during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. Father Higgins was an army chaplain who served in the Pacific front during World War II, fighting in Guam (among other places), and the war is said to have left him with a permanent case of bad nerves and a violent temper.
* OnOneCondition: In ''The Chessman of Doom'', Professor Childermass will only inherit his late brother Perry's estate (and 10 million dollars) if he stays there for the summer (June 15 to Labor Day) and keeps the place in shape without any paid help. He winds up violating the terms of the will by going home early, stating that the money isn't worth the risk of sticking around and possibly getting killed by the EvilWizard Edmund Stallybrass. He does get twenty thousand dollars as a consolation prize; ''The Hand of the Necromancer'' reveals that Perry also bequeathed him a collection of items once owned by the wizard Esdrias Blackleach, which come with their own set of dangers.

* PoliceAreUseless: ''The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost''.

* HatesBeingNicknamed:
** Professor Roderick Childermass hates being called "Rod".
** Father Higgins hates being called "Higgy".

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Johnny Dixon, and later also Fergie, with Professor Roderick Childermass.

* LostWillAndTestament: ''The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt'' has cereal magnate H. Bagwell Glomus, whose will was hidden away before his suicide, and Johnny Dixon's desperate hunt for it (he wants the reward money to pay for a brain surgeon for his grandmother, whom he believes to be dying of a brain tumor). His efforts are opposed by Glomus's sister, who wants the will to stay hidden because she fears her brother hadn't left her anything (without a will, she at least got some of his money). Johnny ultimately figures out the will's hiding place; it's destroyed in a fire before it can be read, but his discovery means he still gets the reward money.

* CreepyCemetery: Full of [[Series/DoctorWho weeping angels]].

* SupernaturalIsPurple: When a star shines through a certain piece of purple glass, it causes a chest to appear that can transport people to another dimension.