Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781423164920)

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.

The author of the blockbuster Bartimaeus series delivers another amusing, chilling, and ingeniously plotted entry in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.

Praise for The Screaming Staircase

This story will keep you reading late into the night, but you'll want to leave the lights on. Stroud is a genius at inventing an utterly believable world which is very much like ours, but so creepily different. Put The Screaming Staircase on your 'need to read' list! -- Rick Riordan

A pleasure from tip to tail, this is the book you hand the advanced readers that claim they'd rather read Paradise Lost than Harry Potter. Smart as a whip, funny, witty, and honestly frightening at times, Stroud lets loose and gives readers exactly what they want. Ghosts, kids on their own without adult supervision, and loads of delicious cookies. -- Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal

Stroud 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). -- Publishers Weekly

A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. -- Kirkus Reviews

Author: Jonathan Stroud
ISBN-10: 142316492X
ISBN-13: 9781423164920
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Language: English
Published: 09/16/2014
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.39lbs
Size: 8.55h x 5.82w x 1.36d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.2
Point Value: 16
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 168794 / Whispering Skull


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2014
Booklist 09/01/2014 pg. 117
School Library Journal 10/01/2014 pg. 108
Shelf Awareness 09/26/2014
Booklist Ed Choice Youth 01/01/2015 pg. 18
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2015 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author
Jonathan Stroud (www.jonathanstroud.com) is the author of four previous books in the Lockwood & Co. series as well as the New York Times bestselling Bartimaeus books, and the stand-alone titles Heroes of the Valley, The Leap, The Last Siege, and Buried Fire. He lives in England with his wife and three children.