  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 06/01/2013 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. - Copyright 2013 Booklist. School Library Journal - 09/01/2013 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 - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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