The Hand of the Necromancer (Johnny Dixon)

When Professor Childermass lends a collection of artifacts to a local museum, a "collector" named Mattheus Mergal appears, demanding to see it. Mergal aims to steal a wooden hand with the power to raise the dead, and if he gets his hands on it, no one will be able to stop him from terrorizing the world. Can Johnny and the professor halt him in time? "A spellbinding tale." -- School Library Journal