Fans of The Screaming Staircase, book one in Jonathan Stroud's (Bartimaeus quartet) excellent Lockwood & Co. series, will be happy to reconnect with this team of appealing psychic investigation agents for a second installment. From genteel Anthony Lockwood, head of Lockwood & Co. Agency, to scruffy, research-loving George and Lucy, who can hear spirits speak, there is plenty of chemistry among this group. Their job is to rid London of malevolent ghosts, while trying to stay one step ahead of their rivals at the Fittes Agency.
With London overrun with supernatural activity, Lockwood & Co. is hired to oversee the exhumation of a dangerous grave. The grave, which belongs to a dark arts practitioner who died horrifically, is thought to house a "Type Two Visitor." When they open the coffin to seal the bones "with a bit of silver," a terrible relic is found, and George's fascination with it allows the nasty ghost to escape. When the relic itself goes missing, Lockwood & Co. are pitted against a Fittes team headed by the odious Quill Kipps, to locate the relic before it falls into the wrong hands.
This second book neatly wraps up its investigation, while leaving a few loose threads to be examined in future episodes. The Whispering Skull blends a suspenseful, creepy mystery with a fine touch of wry humor. Readers will eagerly await the third episode in this charmingly gruesome series. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators