After her shocking decision to leave her job and home Lucy has a new place to live, albeit a very small bedsit. She is now being hired as a single operative against ‘The Problem’. She hates to admit it, but working with unskilled agents who seem to defer to their adult supervisors at every turn is frustrating and annoying, and she misses Lockwood and Co. But the reason she left is still clear in her mind.

When a knock comes at her door one day, the last person she expects is standing outside. Antony Lockwood himself.

Lockwood & Co have been hired by the prestigious Fittes Agency, specifically asking for Lucy Carlyle to be part of the team. There is a dangerous entity that needs to be cleared and a skilled ghost listener like Lucy will be required. The skull in the ghost jar jeers at Lucy after Lockwood’s visit, needling her constantly about the newest member of Lockwood & Co – Holly.

Lucy agrees to join Lockwood, but only as a consultant or even better Lockwood claims; as a client. Finally back with her old friends, Lucy feels a gap now between them. George is angry with her, Holly is just as nice, but surprisingly doesn’t annoy Lucy so much, and Lockwood is his old self. Polite, remote, but pleased she is part of the team again.

The job for the Fittes agency is incredibly dangerous and the skull is invaluable in the mission. Which makes it all the more annoying. And suddenly it is gone. Someone is collecting sources from wherever they can get them – mostly illegally. When Lucy’s life is on the line, she runs to the only place she knows is safe – Lockwood & Co.

George’s research skills, Lucy’s listening skills and Lockwood’s doggedness to solve a mystery, soon has them all up against forces on both sides of the ghost realm, revealing a betrayal nearly too huge to comprehend. Just when they have got their minds around it, another rears up at them. Has everything they’ve known been a complete lie?

Number 4 in this fantastic series – one of my all time favourites ever!

Lucy tries life as a operative for hire on her own in this episode – pushing her feelings for Lockwood & Co aside. But the valid reason for leaving in the first place is soon pushed aside and she is in her rightful place again – at Lockwood’s side.

There is lots happening in this episode, as in previous books in the series, with all manner of the supernatural to defeat along with the ghost of a cannibal to capture. Lucy’s attachment to The Skull is made clear when she loses it, and the fight to get it back is thrilling. This leads them into unknown territory even for this skilled group of ghost hunters, and shocking revelations result.

The skull then provides another cliff-hanger to finish the episode with. Something so huge that waiting for The Empty Grave (the last in this series) will be torture!

Author – Jonathan Stroud

Age – 11+

Read reviews on other books in the series Here

(2016, Penguin Random House, Series, Ghosts, Scary, Ghost hunters, Friendship, Courage, Cannibal, Murder, Theft, Break in, Chase, The other side, Betrayal, Truth, Experiments, Haunted Village, Teamwork, Freaky, Horror, Murder, Crime)