Chessmen of Doom

Description: "Professor Childermass's brother Peregrine has left behind a huge inheritance a mansion, ten million dollars, and a cryptic riddle that might save the world from a madman. The only catch is that the professor must stay on the estate up in Maine for the entire summer. Johnny Dixon and his friend Fergie decide to come along to keep the professor company, but little do they know the dangerous magic that awaits them there. As they try to decode the strange rhyme in Peregrine's will, a powerful force is circling ever closer. Will they solve the mystery in time? Will the madman stay one step ahead of them? Who will help them save the world from destruction?"--Provided by publisher.

Brief description: John Bellairs is beloved as a master of Gothic young adult novels and fantasies. His series about the adventures of Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle Jonathan, which includes The House with a Clock in Its Walls, is a classic. He also wrote a series of novels featuring the character Johnny Dixon. Among the titles in that series are The Curse of the Blue Figurine; The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt; and The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull. His stand-alone novel The Face in the Frost is also regarded as a fantasy classic, and among his earlier works are St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies and The Pedant and the Shuffly.

Bellairs was a prolific writer, publishing more than a dozen novels before his untimely death in 1991.