'The Whispering Skull' (‘Lockwood & Co.’ #2) by Jonathan Stroud

The world is beset by a plague of ghosts that only children (and only some children) can overcome. Lucy, George and Lockwood comprise London’s smallest but most talented psychic investigation agency. In this second adventure (if you haven’t read The Screaming Staircase, it is time you did) a horrific mirror removed from a disinterred coffin attracts the attention of powerful forces among both the living and the dead (including that of a haunted but safely encapsulated skull that ‘just happens’ to be in the Lockwood & Co.'s possession, and with which Lucy finds herself able to communicate). These books have excellent characters, are both genuinely scary and genuinely funny (Stroud adeptly moves between these poles as he tightens the screws of the plot) and demand to be read and read until they are finished. This second book is even better than the first.

(Oct 2014)