Review: Lockwood & Co: The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud

Lockwood & Co. might be the smallest (some might say shambolic) Psychic Detection Agency in London. But its three agents - Lockwood, Lucy and George - are exceptional Talents. And they get results. When an outbreak of ghostly phenomena grows to terrifying levels in Chelsea, Scotland Yard is left baffled.

Even more baffling is that Lockwood & Co appear to have been excluded from the huge team of Agents investigating the Chelsea Outbreak. Surely this is the perfect chance for them to show once and for all that they're actually the best in town? Well, that's if they can put aside their personal differences for long enough to march into action with their rapiers, salt and iron . . .

To my great shame, I have just realised that I have not featured reviews of either of the first two Lockwood & Co. books on this blog. This discovery has caused no small amount of confusion as well, as I was pretty sure I had posted a review of at least one of the books, but all I can find is a brief mention of The Screaming Staircase in my Books of 2013 post. Maybe I just wrote the reviews in my head? Hey, whatever, they are both flippin' brilliant so if you haven't done so and you like horror stories with a dash of comedy (or comedy stories with a massive dollop of the spooky) then make it a priority, and definitely before you read this third outing, The Hollow Boy.

I have been a fan of Jonathan Stroud's writing ever since I first read The Amulet of Samarkand, and he continues to impress all these years later (twelve years since the first Bartimaeus book! Can you believe it?). In fact, great as the first two Lockwood & Co. books were, this one is even better and certainly confirms Stroud as one of the best MG/YA writers around (and so begins the discussion - is Lockwood & Co. YA or MG? I'd have to ignore those often overlapping categories and go for a more specific 11+ in this case I think).

At the end of The Whispering Skull we were left with something of a cliffhanger - whilst the main story had been brought to a satisfying conclusion, Lockwood was finally about to reveal something of the mystery of his past to his two fellow agents, Lucy and George. The Hollow Boy doesn't exactly pick up where things were left - we have to wait a handful of chapters of ghost hunting for that - and when we do finally find out, the reveal leaves us with almost as many questions as answers. And we are not the only ones left wanting more - the ever-inquisitive Lucy Carlyle is also left wondering, something which obviously continues to cause friction throughout the story. And that's not the only cause of tension between Lucy and Lockwood - due to the increase in their cases since their successes in The Whispering Skull, Lockwood deems it necessary to take on an assistant in the form of the seemingly perfect Holly Munro. Cue that ole' green eyed monster that is jealousy taking a firm root in Lucy's mind.

Not only does Stroud use The Hollow Boy to really develop Lucy's character, he also gives us a much greater understanding of the alternative London/world that he has created, especially with regards to the scale of the 'Problem' and how it affects whole populations and not just individuals who are unlucky enough to live in a haunted house. It's also a much darker instalment for Lockwood and his friends, to the point where as readers we are not entirely sure whether all of them will make it to the final page alive. As narrator, Lucy also drops the occasional hint that things do not turn out perfectly for the team, and this just ramps up the tension even more.

There are reveals and developments aplenty in The Hollow Boy, but I feel the book also needs to come with an advisory notice as by the end we are most definitely left with even more questions than we had at its beginning, and even worse - the cliffhanger at the end is even bigger and more jaw dropping than that at the end of The Whispering Skull. And unlike that previous episode, even the main plot line of this book does not have a neat and tidy ending and we are cruelly left with all kinds of (most likely hideously incorrect) suppositions and conjectures floating around in our minds.

And now we have to wait for another year for book four, but resat assured I will be putting in my preorder as soon as it is listed in a certain online store, just as I did with The Hollow Boy.

Review: First Class Murder (A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery) by Robin Stevens

Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are taking a holiday on the world-famous Orient Express - and it's clear that each of their fellow first-class passengers has something to hide. Even more intriguing: there is rumour of a spy in their midst.

Then, during dinner, there is a scream from inside one of the cabins. When the door is broken down, a passenger is found murdered, her stunning ruby necklace gone. But the killer has vanished - as if into thin air.

Daisy and Hazel are faced with their first ever locked-room mystery - and with competition from several other sleuths, who are just as determined to crack the case.

Historical mystery stories suddenly seem to be in vogue as far as middle grade children's books are concerned. In the past twelve months we have seen the publication of, amongst others, Jordan Stratford's The Case of the Missing Moonstone, Katherine Woodfine's The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, Kevin Sands' The Blackthorn Key, and English translations of Irene Adler's Sherlock, Lupin and Me books. However, in my opinion, there is one person who is well ahead of the pack in the race to be crowned queen/king of kidlit mystery writing, and that is Robin Stevens.

Robin's Murder Most Unladylike, the first book in her Wells & Wong Mystery series, was one of my favourite books of 2014. The second book, Arsenic For Tea, made a very early bid for a 2015 top spot, and that has now been usurped by the third, and best in the series so far, First Class Murder. Robin Stevens doesn't just write outstanding mystery stories, her writing is among the very best for middle grade readers in the UK this year.

For this third book, Stevens has taken on her greatest challenge to date by setting her mystery on the Orient Express in 1935, only a year after the original release date of the great Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. However, the author has met this challenge with seemingly consummate ease, and has produced a mystery story that will keep young readers guessing until the dramatic denouement.

For many years, young fans of mystery stories had to make do with reading and re-reading the various mystery stories of Enid Blyton. However, the 'politically correct' brigade's claims of racism and sexism in Blyton's writing have sadly made these less appealing for parents to give to their children these days. Such claims can certainly not be levelled at the writing of Robin Stevens, who deals with the accepted, casual racism of that time with sensitivity, and whose female characters are intelligent, resilient and will never play second fiddle to any boy or man. In this third outing for the mystery solving pair, Stevens again does not shy away from touching on sensitive issues - in this case, the evil that was rising in Germany, and the plight of Jewish people in pre-WWII Europe with Hitler in power.

In Arsenic For Tea, we had the pleasure of meeting Daisy's family of eccentrics, and now the spotlight is on Hazel and her family, and more specifically her father. Vincent Wong, Director of Wong Banking, is a successful and driven man, yet this is 1930s Europe, and as such there are individuals who will look at him and assume he is a servant. However, whenever such incorrect assumptions are made he faces them with dignity and poise; it is easy to see where Hazel gets her inner strength from. He is also a man who wants the very best for his daughter, and in his mind the solving of mysteries is not a suitable pastime or occupation for any young lady, least alone his daughter. Thus Daisy's and Hazel's efforts to find the murderer are hampered even greater that usual by his vigilance and occasional interference. His presence leads to all kinds of subterfuge on the part of the girls, which in lesser hands could quite easily have descended into the world of slapstick. But hey, this is Robin Stevens we are talking about, so instead it not only adds humour to the story, but also adds to the tension we feel as readers.  

I desperately hope that Robin Stevens and her publisher have many more mysteries planned for Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong. If they do, then I predict that there will come a time when people no longer first think of Blyton when asked to name a children's mystery writer, instead it will be the name of Robin Stevens that is first on their lips. Move over Blyton, your long reign is over and there is a new queen of children's mystery stories!