Showing The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull by John Bellairs

Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass are visiting a New Hampshire inn and inside that inn is a clock. It’s called the Childermass Clock. Inside the clock there’s a tiny dollhouse room, an exact replica of the professor’s childhood home. And, on one of the shelves in that tiny room is a tiny skull. And, inside that skull is something evil.

In this third Johnny Dixon mystery, Johnny takes the skull to try to solve the murder of the professor’s granduncle, but when he does, it unleashes dark forces that take the professor away. To get him back, Johnny and his friends Fergie and Father Higgins must race to the deserted islands off the coast of Maine. Little do they know the terrifying danger that awaits them there…