History Literature / TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine

** Main villain Mama Sinestra plans to use her voodoo magic to draw the souls out of her victims and turn them into soulless zombies under her control.

# ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'' (1994; set September though New Year's Day)

* FryingPanOfDoom: Played with -- during ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'', Professor Childermass grabs up a cast-iron frying pan from Professor Coote's kitchen with the intention of using it against the intruder in the house, who's in the process of dragging Johnny away. When he gets outside, however, he finds a better weapon, and leaves the frying pan behind in favor of his tire iron.

** The professor hates being called "Rod" (though it's specified in ''The Drum, The Doll and The Zombie'' that he doesn't mind friends of his own age using it), 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.

** ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'': Mama Sinestra had revived a dead man as her slave; when her spell is broken, he returns to his grave, taking her with him. Her grandson then tries to summon the spirit of Baron Samedi, who promptly turns on him.

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The pillow creature in ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'' is described as having "hundreds of needle-sharp teeth".

* PosthumousCollaboration: ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'', written by Strickland based on Bellairs' notes.

* YouCantMissIt: Referenced in ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'' when a very frustrated Professor Childermass has just gotten a set of directions from a gas station attendant and preempts the expected line with "Don't you ''dare'' tell me I can't miss it!".

* GenreShift: ''The Trolley To Yesterday'' is a time-travel story (and a steampunk one at that!).

* HandOfGlory: The Hand of Glory is mentioned by Professor Childermass in ''The Hand of the Necromancer''.

** 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.

* RecurringExtra: Perry Childermass manages to be both this ''and'' an UnseenCharacter (the first time he's named, it's because the Professor has gotten a letter reporting his death; [[spoiler:and his physical body never appears, as his corpse was stolen soon afterward]]). Despite this, he still manages to to affect the plot of three different books: ''The Chessmen of Doom'', ''The Hand of the Necromancer'' and ''The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder''.

** The tentacled monster hanging around the Windrow Estate, and the enigmatic stained-glass window depicting three figures, are borrowed from the M.R. James stories "Count Magnus" and "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas," respectively.
** The "Temple of the Inner Light," also located on the estate, may be a more subtle Shout Out to "The Inmost Light," a story by Creator/ArthurMachen. In both cases, LightIsNotGood.

* VerbalTic: Mattheus Mergal has a habit of saying "Hmm". This, along with a few other things, clues in Johnny that it's Mergal on the phone and not Professor Childermass, as he claims.

* NotSoFakePropWeapon: A variation in ''The Curse of the Blue Figurine''. The titular object is a tourist trinket from Cairo, ''Illinois'', rather than an authentic Egyptian artifact--but that doesn't make it any less dangerous.

** Prof Childermass.
** Father Higgins.

** The Professor and Fergie get theirs in ''The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost''.
** Father Higgins steps in after the Prof disappears in ''The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull'', with a full one coming in ''The Secret of the Underground Room''.

* DraftDodging: In ''The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder'', the book's antagonist Jarmyn Thanatos (then operating under the name Jarmyn Nemo) is noted to have paid a substitute to join the Union Army in his place in 1862.

** Dr. Pimlico and her FakeBrit husband, Evaristaus Sloane (InUniverse, he had to leave his home and move to England for quite some time, long enough to pick up a touch of an accent), in ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot''.
** Edmund Stallybrass in ''The Chessmen of Doom''.
** Dr. Rufus Masterman in ''The Secret of the Underground Room''.

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

* WhenThePlanetsAlign: The planets have to be favorable for Edmund Stallybrass to perform the spell that would summon comets to wipe out humanity.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: During his years as a semi-professional baseball player, Johnny's grandfather used to be called "Cyclone Dixon".

* AlliterativeName:
** Roderick Random Childermass.
** Peregrine Pickle Childermass.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Wishes granted by Jarmyn Thanatos' "Book of True Wishes" tend to backfire on the wisher, as Fergie discovers - among other things, he wishes his mother didn't have to work so hard, [[spoiler:so she falls and twists her ankle, meaning she'll have to stay off it and can't do much work until it heals.]]
* BookSafe: A Roman Missal is used as one in ''The Curse of the Blue Figurine'', housing a blue ushabti (the titular "blue figurine") and a scroll with a note from the late Father Remigius Baart.

** Dr. Carl Schermerhorn is regarded as a quack by Professor Childermass, due to his making a misdiagnosis that turned fatal - he mistook a brain tumor for bad teeth, and as a result, the patient (Professor Childermass's cousin Bea) died.

* FakingTheDead: In ''The Chessman of Doom'', Professor Childermass states that all of his brothers (naming three) are dead now. In the following book, ''The Secret of the Underground Room'', it turns out that one of them was still alive after all - Humphrey Clinker Childermass had decided the world had gotten to be too much for him, so he faked his own death and went into hiding. He reveals his true status in order to help the professor, Johnny and Fergie with rescuing Father Higgins and defeating Rufus Masterman and his fellow knights.

* FryingPanOfDoom: Played with - during ''The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie'', Professor Childermass grabs up a cast-iron frying pan from Professor Coote's kitchen with the intention of using it against the intruder in the house, who's in the process of dragging Johnny away. When he gets outside, however, he finds a better weapon, and leaves the frying pan behind in favor of his tire iron.

* HollywoodHeartAttack: While not seen, a heart attack is what kills [[spoiler: Evaristus Sloane in ''The Eyes of the Killer Robot'' - his witnessing the defeat of the titular robot is the trigger, with his wife exclaiming afterward that "He's dead! His poor heart couldn't take it!"]]. Foreshadowed early on when [[spoiler: his wife]] tells him to "Remember what that doctor told you about your heart!"

* KillItWithWater: [[spoiler: How to ''actually'' beat Thanatos and his "Book of True Wishes" - at Johnny's taunting, Fergie jumps into Lake Umbagog with the book in hand, and it melts away in an instant, taking Thanatos with it. It's later explained that Thanatos was a strong believer in astrology and in opposites; he was born under the sign of Aries, a fire sign, so naturally its opposite would be hostile to him in all its forms.]]
* LethalChef: Downplayed example with Grampa Dixon. The one time his cooking is described, he's said to have overcooked hamburgers until they were charred, and the canned peas were just as bad. Then again, he ''was'' depressed over his wife being in the hospital with a brain tumor at the time.

* ShoutOutThemeNaming: Professor Childermass's father, Marcus, named his sons after characters in Tobias Smollett novels - Roderick Random, Humphrey Clinker, Peregrine Pickle and Ferdinand Count Fathom (who usually goes by F.C.F. Childermass). Possibly averted with his daughter, whose name is never mentioned.

* GhostlyChill: In ''The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost, the catacombs under the church on the old Windrow estate are rather chilly, in part because the spirit of Zebulon Windrow is lurking about.

* BadassPreacher: Father Higgins.

** The skull from ''The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull'' is one of these. Johnny suspects it's an [[ArtifactOfDoom evil talisman]] which has a negative effect on him, so he drops it into a lake. [[spoiler:When he comes face to face with the BigBad, he can sense the skull appear in his pants pocket, still cold and wet from its time at the bottom of the lake.]]

* GhostlyChill
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The guards at the gates to Nyarlat-Hotep's palace stop the Professor, Johnny and Fergie and declare that "None shall pass!" However, in no small part due to their being [[EyeScream blinded by having their eyes sewn shut]], Professor Childermass is able to fool them into believing they'd really said "''Nuns'' shall pass", and that he ''is'' a nun and thus allowed in, with Johnny and Fergie also introducing themselves as "Sister (name)". The last time the guards are heard from, one is remarking on how there's been a lot of nuns around lately and wondering if there's a convention going on.

* HeldBackInSchool: In ''The Hand of the Necromancer'', Johnny has a run in with his old classmate Eddie Tompke, who'd been in the same class as him "until the previous year", having been held back. He pretends it doesn't bother him, but it clearly does.

* KillItWithWater: [[spoiler: How to ''actually'' beat Thanatos and his "Book of True Wishes" - at Johnny's taunting, Fergie jumps into Lake Umbagog with the book in hand, and it melts away in an instant, taking Thanatos with it.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: More like "doctors are useless" in ''The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost'', since none of them realize Johnny's being possessed by an evil spirit. Instead, they just diagnose him with an "unknown illness of the brain".

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

* SurvivalMantra: In ''The Curse Of The Blue Figurine'', Professor Childermass is climbing a mountain on a stormy night, searching for Johnny Dixon, who has been abducted by a ghost. The professor is afraid of heights, so he repeatedly quotes the "Lay on, Macduff!" speech from ''Macbeth'' and recites a prayer to Saint Michael to keep himself from panicking and turning back.

* TimeTravelEpisode: ''The Trolley to Yesterday''.