Tiffany Spencer's Reviews > The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder

** spoiler alert ** The Vengence of the Witch Finder
Jonathan and Lewis are in London on a search for Sherlocke Holmes home. It’s the third day of a six week vacation. They make it to Baker Street and Lewis locates the house. He comes to this conclusion because it faces East, the front door has a semi-circular fan on the door, and there’s an empty building across from it. The Constabul points out some more possibilities. There are seventeen steps leading to the second story and there’s no bow window but it was probably destroyed. After this they visit the British Museum and some strange little chops. Jonathan finds a stone carab for Mrs. Zimmermon. It’s three thousand years old. Jonathan says it’s not what he really wants to give her Lewis knows he wishes he could return her magic. This makes them both a little sad.

The next day they visit The Tower of London.Then they see Buckingham Palace and see the changing of the guards. They then do some exploring. Then they go to Dinsdale. There they have a cousin named Pelham who lives in a manor. They’ll spend the night there getting to know him. Jonathan warns him he’s not rich and they’ll have to be tactful. Jonathan’s brought him “a care package”. He won’t find this offensive. A lean man with silver hair and shabby clothes greets them. Then he takes them to Barnavel Manor. On first impression, the house looks evil to lewis.

Their introduced to the rest of the staff (Jenkins, Birdie, and God Ring). Birdie (whose blind) gives him a tour. He shows him Mater Martin. study (who was said to be a witch). The house was taken on account of him being accused of witch craft.Eventually he did get the house back from the Puritans. Birdie thinks he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s no such thing as witches. Then they go outside. Then he shows him an entrance to a hedge that leads to a maze. They get lost but Birdie fortunately knows a trick thtat leads them to the exit. After this Birdie sugguests a book in the study for Lewis to read about Master Martin and they explore more of the outside. That night, Pelly expresses that he’s disappointed there leaving and Johanthan says maybe they’ll come back before they leave. In bed, Lewis reads “The Histry of the Barnavel Family”. He takes particular interest in the chapter about the witch finder. It’s about Pruit torturing those he accused of witchcraft and there being a chamber in the house where this went on. In the book, he finds a map of the hedge maze with something at the heart of the maze.

He sneaks out to the maze and is followed by Birdy. Together they go check out the maze and Birdy hopes they’ll find treasure so he can go to America and get a operation that might bring back his sight. He notices there’s a drawing of a bench with a line through it and he realizes they have to crawl under the bench. There’s an opening there and a building inside with a dome. It doesn’t have an opening. They discover one of the bricks is loose (on the bench). Birdy and Lewis go through the opening just as they hear laughter and something grabs Lewis. As he runs out of the maze he hears a sinister voice in his head. He notices the moon looks like a skull with missing teeth and it sappears to be say “Now I have thee”. Behind him he hears something running behind him and then he comes to a dead end. He hears the invisible creature but Birdy pulls him to the exit and he runs for the manor.

He falls and sees a the shadow. Lewis hurts his ankle but it able to stagger away to safety and loses the creature. Lewis and Birdy decide to keep the whole thing to themselves. The next morning, his cousin thinks he sees something out of the window, but dismisses it as nerves. Lewis sees stirrings in the hedge maze that can’t be the wind, but then they go still again. Jonahtan notices and asks what’s wrong but Lewis says nothing. Just looks like a storm’s coming. Then he slips away to say goodbye to Birdy. When he leaves he hears his cousin say there feels like something in the air.

When talking to Birdy, Birday asks him what they should do. Lewis says to keep him informed. They come up with code words to let him (Lewis) know if things are good there or bad. Jonathan and Lewis leave for Paris and do some sight seeing. He keeps in touch with Birdy. Birdy’s reply has the word “wonderful” in it so Lewis is relived. Jonathan and Lewis visit Pompeye (which Lewis is fascinated by) and continues to send post cards to Birdy every other day. Lewis starts to have dreams about strange bushes that eventually reach out there red branch’s to grab him, but he can’t run. He hears the monster somewhere out of sight. One of the branch’s grabs him and sweeps him forward. At the end of the branch is a human skeleton. It has green glass spectacles. Red twings appear out of the sockets and the spectacles drop to the ground. The branches draw him closer and then he’d awake in a cold sweat. Lewis gets a message that has “awfully” in it and nows his nightmares are going to come true.

Pelly looks even more worn on there trip back. His behavior is a little … off. Lewis tells Birdy about the nightmares and Birday says he has them too. He hears hushed voises that sometimes say his name from his window (or his closet or bed). Birdy also says a gentleman came and rented the gate house but he’s horrible. He felt something cold when he passed him (like a shadow). His voice sounded like a ghost. The ones he’s been hearing. Birdy then says the man has no footseps either. He implies he knows he’s alone in the house. Then all the chickens have died. All the others have become irritable and edgy. Lewis says they’ll have to find evidence that he’s up to no good.

So, they go to his house and try to peek in through the window, but it’s empty. They go in and something tall is inside. So they take off running and find themselves being chased again by the invisible thing. The thing can’t crsoss the drive though. Something is keeping them out. Then they see a tall, thin, pale, man beside the house. When Lewis looks again he’s disappeared. Jenkins warns them to leave Prestor alone. He mentions he made him look for a key. They find out it’s the key to the lumber room and he found it in the scullery. It’s a storage room. Lewis deducts that something in the attic was taken (a trunk). There’s a thin book on the floor. He later gets a chance to look at the book in bed. It’s an old diary of Martin Barnavel. In it is Martin’s tale from his perspective of what happened. It speaks of two women that were accused of being witches, but it was Pruitt that was the wizard, He used a spell of evil spirits and then had Martin locked up. Matin tho was also a wizard and used the Amulet of Constantine to break off Prui’s hold of the evil spirit. This rid him of his magic and he died. He says he imprisoned the sprit in the tomb and now Lewis knows what he unleashed.

In the thunder and lighting, Lewis can see a face outside his window. The diary grows hot and starts to smoke. Then it explodes and Lewis falls to the floor. Mrs. Goodring tells him the next day that Pelham and Jonathan have gone on a trip and he can’t play with Birdie. Her movements are bizzare and mechanical. She tells him to go play in the maze (by himself). Its also weird that Johnathan’s clothes are still there. So, Lewis calls the Constable, reaches his mother, and tries to leave a message but the phone cuts off. So, he decides to walk to the police station. When he leaves, he sees Jenkin sealing off the drive. His eyes are empty and his voice is hollow. He recognizes the voice and runs back to the manor. Jenkins and Goodring are hypnotized. Birdie is missing. Her uncle and cousin are gone and he’s trapped at the manor.

He goes back into the manor and Goodring sends him to his room. When there he locks the door. He makes a makeshift rope and escapes out the window. He sees someone has cut the wires. He finds Birdie and they find a shed to talk in. They decide the best bet is to try to find the amulet in the vault. They’re able to get into the dome and find the Amulet of Constantine and the crown of King Charles the 1st. The thing starts to come after them again. Birdy falls. Lewis thrust the amulet at him. The thing stops. This makes it lay down in the grass and the boys make it to the manor. Safely in the room, Birdie wonders how the ghost was able to get into the manor Lewis says that when they opened the vault they brought Pruitt’s spirit back to the manor. Prestor must be the ghost of Pruitt.”Grolie” (I’m guessing this is the creature) is the spirit he controlled. The ghost is using it as a guard dog. But Jenkins let Prestor inside so he got past Martin’s protection circle.

Lewis and Birdie make an attempt to go out into the hallway for food and there is the apperition. Then he turns . Lewis and Birdie start to run down the hallway. It’s Pelly. He forces them to climb down a stairway. In the room is uncle Johnathan and a bunch of instruments of torture. This is the room where Martin was tortured. Lewis tricks the Witchfinder into agreeing to free everyone else if he gives him the crown. But once he has the crown on his head, Lewis has attached the amulet to the crown and it takes care of the ghost. The police take Pelly, Birdie’s mom, and Jenkins to the clinic and it’s explained away as a “gass leak”. Prestor returns to London. Jonathan burns some of his stuff. Johnathan gives Pelly the crown. A lawyer says he has a good chance of claiming it.

When they get back, Jonathan and Lewis don’t mention what happened. Rose Rita and Mrs. Z immermon tho went on a trip and she got her magic back. Eventually they tell Mrs. Zimmermon and Rose Rita. Mrs. Zimmermon says it’s a great historical artifact (the amulet) and Johnathan says she’s welcome to it. After this around the holidays, Lewis gets a card from Birdie and finds out he was able to get the operation and now he can see.

Rating: 6 I didn’t have a lot of thoughts on this one surprisingly. These are always decent but go very quickly. I thought I’d feel more about this one because when I read books about innocent people being accused of “witch craft” it usually leaves me feeling some kind of way because it’s usually the very people who preach about acceptance and “love” that are the ones doing the torturing. So, they just don’t sit right with me. Even though Martin *was* a witch it turned out. But it all just feel kind of flat here. I just didn’t feel that heated spark. Still, the story wasn’t bad. There’s always a little history in these-which isn’t necessarily bad- but if your not into history it can kind of make the story drag a little.