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.
