The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co. Series #2)

by Jonathan Stroud Narrated by Katie Lyons

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"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."— School Library Journal

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"...Stroud writes for a younger audience in book one of the Lockwood & Co. series and delivers some chilling scenes along the way."— Booklist

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"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

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"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. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost's merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls."— Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE WHISPERING SKULL

*"In this sequel to The Screaming Staircase (2013), Stroud delivers another riveting narrative in which the three young psychic investigators deal with malevolent supernatural forces in an alternate London. Stroud writes with a fine ear for dialog, a wry sense of humor, and a knack for describing haunted places. Creating tension that ebbs and flows, he slowly builds the dramatic narrative to a resounding crescendo, and he makes the quieter scenes that follow just as compelling. The second entry in the Lockwood & Company series, this imaginative adventure features one of the most hair-raising chase scenes in children's friction. At the book's end, when the enigmatic Anthony Lockwood reveals a chilling secret, readers can only hope that more sequels are in the offing."— Booklist (starred review)

PRAISE FOR THE WHISPERING SKULL

*"An occult portal and its spectral guardian nearly cut short the careers of three rising young ghost hunters in this madcap sequel to The Screaming Staircase (2013). For all their internecine squabbling, the three protagonists make a redoubtable team-and their supporting cast, led by the sneering titular skull in a jar, adds color and complications aplenty. Rousing adventures for young tomb robbers and delvers into realms better left to the dead."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile

Narrator Katie Lyons smoothly takes the reigns in Stroud’s second ghost-detecting escapade. Psychic agents Lockwood, George, and Lucy are challenged by rival agents, a deadly mystical mirror, and a spirit trapped in a jar. Their investigation has no shortage of creepy moments, and Lyons meets each one head-on, eliciting shivers from listeners. Lyons is skilled at maintaining a breakneck pace while also capturing the group dynamic—Lucy’s no-nonsense narrative, George’s snarky comments, and Lockwood’s cool and confident exterior. Lyons’s flexibility with emotions is well suited to Stroud’s talent for mixing the gruesome with the laugh-out-loud funny. Her perfect rendering of the skull’s unearthly whispers will pique the interest of any fan of macabre adventures. M.F.T. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171875336
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/16/2014
Series:	Lockwood & Co. Series
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	628,814
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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