Review by New York Times Review
where would teenage mysteries be without idiotic antics like going down to the docks alone late at night or opening haunted lockets? And where would Victorian London be without Undead motifs like fog and Scotland Yard? In two new middle-grade novels, Colleen Gleason and Jonathan Stroud have vamped up the familiar world of Holmes and Watson - and Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew - to paranormally exhilarating effect. Gleason sets "The Clockwork Scarab" in a London that is recognizably Victorian but filled with steampunk technology, sure to please what she delightfully calls the "cognoggins" among us. Irene Adler (yes, that Irene Adler, the woman who outwitted Sherlock Holmes) has left her husband and the opera stage for a new career as a cataloger of antiquities at the British Museum. Acting on orders from the Princess of Wales, she commissions Mina Holmes, daughter of Mycroft and niece of Sherlock, and Evaline Stoker, the much younger sister of Bram and the descendant of a talented Regency vampire huntress (familiar to readers of Gleason's Gardella series), to investigate the disappearance and deaths of several young society girls. Clues take Mina and Evaline from ballroom to opium den. At 17, these proto-feminist sleuths are both typical teenagers, trying to sort out their skills and desires. In their dealings with the young men they encounter - an observant Scotland Yard inspector, a mysterious con artist and an accidental tourist from the 21st century - they outwardly spar, inwardly swoon. The girls are also a bit suspicious (and envious) of each other, but it's clear from their alternating first-person narratives that their friendship is growing. While Mina dominates the conversation here, I suspect the as yet untested vampire-fighter Evaline will get her night to shine in future volumes. In "The Screaming Staircase," Jonathan Stroud also gives us an alternative London, a London of rapiers, Velero and the Problem Ghosts - euphemistically called Visitors - infest the country. Everyone suffers the Visitors' soul-sapping effects, but only the young, with their "extreme psychic sensitivity," can find and destroy them. Anthony Lockwood, "a boy who was clearly never happier than when walking into a haunted room, his hand resting lightly on his sword hilt," has set up his own agency, Lockwood & Co., with two other teenage ghostbusters. Lockwood's reckless flair is counterbalanced by George Cubbins, a pudgy and prickly research whiz, as "handsome as a freshly opened tub of margarine, as charismatic as a wet tea towel lying scrumpled on the floor." No prizes for guessing which boy our narrator, Lucy Carlyle, prefers. The three have worked on a number of cases before, but Lucy doesn't want to talk about them, "in part because of the gruesome nature of the incidents, but mainly because, in a variety of ingenious ways, we succeeded in messing them all up." Now an apparently simple case has turned very weird indeed - a murdered girl, Annabel Ward, is furious about something - and Lockwood & Co. have to exercise all their combined talents to set things right. With the same sophisticated imagination that made his Bartimaeus series such a success, Stroud's writing is assured and nimble. He's terrific at mixing the macabre with high-school-level repartee: "Well, that was useful." "Really?" "No. I'm being ironic. Or is it sarcastic? I can never remember." "Irony's cleverer, so you're probably being sarcastic." A large part of the fun for any former teenager reading these books is recognizing background Victoriana. Is Gleason's seamstress Madame Varney any relation to Varney the Vampire? Do the Brontës haunt Stroud's novel, with the Red Room and the name Fairfax wafting in from "Jane Eyre" and Lockwood's name a revenant from "Wuthering Heights"? If such games appeal to you, stay alert. Both series, particularly Stroud's, promise to be lightheartedly thrilling, with sweet underlying age-appropriate stories about finding yourself and some good friends at the same time. ALEXANDRA MULLEN reviews books for The Wall Street Journal and The Barnes & Noble Review.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 13, 2013]
Review by Booklist Review
Fifty years after the Problem began in London, it has slowly spread through the country. The public dreads Visitors, malevolent ghosts that can be directly sensed only by children. Young Lucy Carlyle joins Anthony Lockwood and George Cubbins to become Lockwood & Co., three kids using rapiers, iron chains, and magnesium fire to handle Visitors. After they bungle a job by inadvertently burning down a house, their company faces imminent ruin. Their last hope of saving it involves accepting a dicey assignment in one of England's most haunted houses. Despite the necessary time spent framing the series, Stroud ratchets up the tension considerably when the trio goes to work. Still, the most satisfying parts of the book concern the three intriguing main characters and the dynamics of their not-quite-comfortable relationship. Best known for the Bartimaeus books, beginning with The Amulet of Samarkand (2003), Stroud writes for a younger audience in book one of the Lockwood & Co. series and delivers some chilling scenes along the way. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY - Stroud made many fans with the Bartimaeus books, and his even though this is for a younger audience, his name carries weight with librarians, teachers, and parents.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In what has come to be called "the Problem," the British Isles have become plagued with ghostly Visitors in this highly entertaining first book in Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series. Since children and young teenagers are most able to sense the ghosts, psychically gifted youths are employed by agencies large and small, and use iron chains, magnesium flares, and salt bombs to contain and dispatch the Visitors. Narrator Lucy Carlyle has moved to London following a ghost-hunting mission gone very wrong, and her luck improves when she joins a small, independent outfit run by the dashing Anthony Lockwood and his studious and exasperating (to Lucy) partner, George Cubbins. Stroud (the Bartimaeus series) shows his customary flair for blending deadpan humor with thrilling action, and the fiery interplay among the three agents of Lockwood & Co. invigorates the story (along with no shortage of creepy moments). Stroud plays with ghost story conventions along the way, while laying intriguing groundwork that suggests that the Problem isn't the only problem these young agents will face in books to come-the living can be dangerous, too. Ages 8-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-Lucy Carlyle relates the exploits of the teenage ghost-hunting agency, Lockwood & Co. The world is still reeling from an infestation of malevolent, deadly ghosts that can only be detected by Talented youngsters with rare psychic sensitivities. Anthony Lockwood heads his three-person team, including Lucy and George Cubbins, in their efforts to defeat the evil spirits-and remain solvent. A minor haunting that turns into a major problem leads Lockwood & Co. to a brooding mansion that has already claimed the lives of more experienced ghost hunters. Combe Carey Hall is "the most haunted private house in England. an ugly oppressive mongrel of a building," and the trio quickly realizes that the dangers they face have human as well as supernatural sources. Authentically spooky events occur in an engagingly crafted, believable world, populated by distinct, colorful personalities. The genuinely likable members of Lockwood & Co. persevere through the evil machinations of the living and the dead and manage to come out with their skins, and their senses of humor, intact. This smart, fast-paced ghostly adventure promises future chills.-Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
With a morbidly cheery tone and sure-footed establishment of characters and setting, Stroud (the Bartimaeus trilogy; Heroes of the Valley, rev. 1/09) kicks off a new series that is part procedural and part ghost story, with a healthy dash of caper thrown in for good measure. No one knows how the "Problem" began, but ghosts have become the world's worst pest infestation, causing rampant property damage and personal injury, even death. Protagonist Lucy's extreme psychic sensitivity (a talent found only in young people) is rivaled only by her dislike of obeying stupid orders, so she joins Lockwood Co., a scrappy independent agency run by teenage operatives who scorn the usual requisite adult supervision. After a job goes awry, the agency is forced to take on a high-profile, high-paying haunting from a client who is, of course, not telling them everything. The setup is classic and is executed with panache. Lucy's wry, practical voice counterpoints the suspenseful supernatural goings-on as she, agency owner Anthony Lockwood, and dour associate George attempt to stiff-upper-lip their way through the ultimate haunted house. Tightly plotted and striking just the right balance between creepiness and hilarity, this rollicking series opener dashes to a fiery finish but leaves larger questions about the ghost Problem open for future exploration. claire e. gross (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud's new post-Bartimaeus series. Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood Co.--one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost's merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim's desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England's most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney's Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort. A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
