The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2)

by Jonathan Stroud

In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper.

Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom.

Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood's annoyance. Bickerstaff's coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found.

• ISBN10: 142316492X
• ISBN13: 9781423164920
• Publish Date: 16 September 2014 (first published 28 August 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Mad Soul Child]

обожаю

[maggiefan]

THIS BOOK!

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

I first encountered this series at the beginning of the year, the first book being The Screaming Staircase and absolutely loved it. There was no question about whether to request the second book from Netgalley or not, regardless of my ridiculous pile of books to review! And luckily, The Whispering Skull definitely lived up to my expectations.

Set six months after the previous book, The Whispering Skull leaps straight into the action: Lockwood & Co have had a run of successful jobs and things are looking up. More and more clients are approaching them for help and for once they don’t feel like they have to compete with other agencies. That’s until a strange and powerful Source is stolen, and Lockwood, Lucy and George are back in competition with the other agencies, as well as in a race against time, to retrieve it. As before, some scenes were actually genuinely creepy and gave me the chills – but combined with the wonderful sense of humour that I’ve come to expect.

A fast-paced read, the writing just flows off the page – although that may be something to do with the intended younger audience – and the exciting moments just keep coming. I felt that the story was perhaps less atmospheric than The Screaming Staircase, but much of the atmosphere of the first book was created by setting up the story and the changes from the world as we know it.

The publisher describes this book as aimed at ‘middle grade’ readers, but as someone in my twenties I have to say I absolutely LOVE this series. It’s a fabulous mix of ghost novel and detective story, with characters you’ll just love. Lockwood is still an enigma, very much a Sherlock type character, and I can imagine him being a bit of a heart-breaker when he gets older. Lucy is the witty and occasionally sarcastic narrator, with George as the brains but also the comic relief. Were I actually within the age range for this book, I can definitely say that the idea of these teens running their own agencies and living alone, without adults, would be a high point!

If you’re looking for something a little bit creepy, but don’t feel quite ready to delve into some serious horror novels, I would definitely recommend giving Lockwood & Co a try.

[limabean74]

When I got and advanced copy of this book I think I might have danced around the house all day. The first one was one of my favorites and I knew this was a series that I would love keeping up with because of the strong story and the wonderful characters. Lockwood, George and Lucy are just a great group of characters that have really wonderful chemistry and I laughed out loud quite a few times. Even though this story is a bit on the creepy side the characters are so funny but have a lot of depth. The story is told in the POV of Lucy, she is a tough cookie, Lockwood reminds me a bit of Sherlock Holmes and George is for sure is his Watson. Stroud makes it really hard not to fall in love with these characters since I find them to be just amazingly written. I will even say the ghost in the jar made me chuckle a few time, I honestly think he was one of my favorite characters in this book. The Fittes agents that are going against Lockwood & Company are just a bunch of jerks and you really want them to lose in the bet that Lockwood sets with them they are the best kind of enemies. All the characters in the books all work well together and I found them all to be very well written. Even the scary elements might not be that scary to adult (maybe more creepy if you actually think of the world he builds) but this would really make for a good spooky read for teens.

It amazes me how authors come up with stories and how they can create all those details to make a story that works. This is such an original take on ghost and ghost hunting. Even though I am not 100% sure the year this is set in. I can tell you it is pretty much an alternate London and I love they way it is done and I love the writing style he has. The entire concept of this book just blows me way with detail of how the world is. Speaking of world I think he has a fantastic world build. At certain points I found it to be a little slow really because it has so much detail going on but it didn’t stop me from loving it any less. The amount of creepiness and scary tension in this book makes it a wonderful read it really is a ghost story that is really well done and it has a great amount of action as the story draws to a close and the reveal was a little predictable but interesting and had a great fight scene…Then the actual end….Oh the end…. just those last 3 words….I literally gasped….I now need the next one ASAP ;)

I adore this series and I look forward to reading all the books Jonathan Stroud writes the Lockwood & Co. series. I gave this book 4.5/5 stars. Filled with lots of action, mystery, humor and a whole lot of creepiness. I can’t recommend this series enough. Young, old this is a must read…I just want to know when someone is going to make this into a movie!

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