Lucy and George are back in the second book in this series, with their enigmatic but slightly deceptive boss – Antony Lockwood. They are all still young agents with sharp fighting skills, excellent research skills and cunning among them. In particular, Lucy’s ‘listening’ talents seem to be improving. The skull in the jar that George has been experimenting on, speaks to Lucy again. This time it may even be helpful with a case they have been given by DEPRAC.

There’s a couple of problems with that though – DEPRAC has also given the case to Lockwood & Co’s rivals. Kripp and his smartly uniformed team from one of the two top agencies in London, are snarky, smarmy and incredibly annoying to Lucy, George and Lockwood, and the two teams come to blows more than once. But what they are all seeking is too important to fight over. It has killed before and will definitely kill again.

The rivalry between the large and small agencies is deep, and they lay a bet. The agency who solves the case of the missing bone glass artefact is the winner of the bet. The loser has to put an advertisement in the newspapers announcing who is the better agency.

There is more at stake than rivalries however. Why is George acting strangely? What will Lucy have to face on her own? Is the Whispering Skull on their side or not, and finally…what is Lockwood hiding in the mysterious room upstairs?

Author – Jonathan Stroud

Age – 11+

(Ghosts, Spirits, Fear, Mystery, Murder, Action, Detective, Secrets, Rapiers, Swords, Series, Ghost Hunters)