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Lockwood & Co. Books In Order

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Publication Order of Lockwood & Co. Books

The Screaming Staircase (2013)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Dagger in the Desk (2013)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Whispering Skull (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Hollow Boy (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Creeping Shadow (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Empty Grave (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon

The Lockwood & Co. Series of novels is a series of fantasy and paranormal novels set in alternate history London, and written by popular British novelist Jonathan Stroud. The first novel in the series was the 2013 published “The Screaming Staircase”, that went on to become a fan favorite almost overnight. Since the publication of the first novel, Stroud has been publishing one novel in the series every year. The lead character in the series of novels is Lucy Carlyle, who joins a Psychic Detection Agency in London, working to fight an epidemic of ghosts. The macabre ghosts stalking the streets of Britain have a touch that brings death to everyone they meet, except for children. Lucy Carlyle new detection agency is one of the smallest of the London agencies that have mushroomed to fight the ghosts. Her agency is run by Anthony Lockwood a man full of charisma assisted by George Cubbin, his ever hungry but capable assistant. The three now have to investigate some of the deadliest and spookiest spectral hauntings in London. However, they have some of the most advanced ghost hunting and fighting tools of the day that include salt bombs, chains, iron filings, magnesium flares, a lot of courage and many cups of tea. But being one of the smallest agencies in London, they face fierce completion from other better equipped and funded agencies. Their assignments are full of gruesome discoveries and sometimes-disastrous endings in the haunted streets and ancient houses of England.

The Lockwood & Co. series of novels is mainly concerned with the three agents of the Lockwood & Co. agency of Ghostbusters in London, England. Lucy the lead character and narrator of the novel series is a fifteen-year-old girl and newest member of the company run by Anthony Lockwood a fellow teenager. Lucy, also known as Lucy Purser is described as a quick-tempered girl that would start a fight at any time. Her father is a stationmaster in the North of England, where she was born and raised for most of her early childhood. She had been a ghost hunter in a local agency but after some of her fellow agents were involved in a fatal hunt, she is so traumatized that she decides to leave and start over in London. Lucy’s talent is great empathy and a reassuring touch. Anthony Lockwood Lucy’s boss is a dashing though reckless teenager whose talent is great eyesight. Lockwood prides himself on his thorough approach to dangerous haunted house cases. He is a very mysterious man and the much we know about him is that he has poor hearing, possesses a glass jar possessed by a ghost, and has no family. Anthony’s deputy is the portly, slovenly, and cynical George Cubbins. George prefers longer wait times between hunts, and spends most of the downtime in preparation and research. While he gets along famously with Anthony Lockwood his boss, he does not get along with Lucy.

As an author that has been influenced by the likes of Conan Doyle of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, and Edgar Allan Poe who writes both detective mysteries and the paranormal, the Lockwood & Co. is an explosive mix. Just like Stroud’s earlier Bartimaeus series, the Lockwood & Co series is set in epoch London, which gives the supernatural and magical aspects of the novels more realism. Jonathan Stroud uses real buildings and roads in the settings of the novels, even as established legends and folklore form the basis for the novels. For instance, for millennia, the British have believed salt, iron, and silver are powerful weapons against the paranormal. However, the novels also add elements of other cultures such as the social stratification of the spirit world, which are derived from Arabian folklore. As for the essence of the novels, they are all about an other worldly scenario, where the adults are helpless and have to depend on children to protect and even die for them. The adults are in great danger from the ghosts, as they cannot see them coming. On the other hand, kids can see the ghosts coming from afar and hence they have a chance to prepare and maybe fight them off. However, even as the children are the ones with the power to see and fight the ghosts, most of the agencies are run by adults, except for Lockwood & Co, which makes its own rules. Over the course of the series, Lockwood gets on the nerves of the adult agencies being more open-minded and thus more effective in its methods. But even with their more effective methods, the Lockwood three still have to enter terrible, vast haunted buildings where they put their lives at risk.

Currently being adapted for film, “The Screaming Staircase”, the first novel in the Lockwood & Co. series of novels by Jonathan Stroud is a humorous, yet suspenseful and chilling novel set in haunted London. For more than half a century, England has been afflicted by an epidemic of ghosts that has been spreading terror with impunity. Several psychic investigations agencies have been set up to tackle the spectral apparitions, and Lockwood & Co. of London is just one such agency. Lucy Carlyle is a highly skilled and talented agent that left her home in the North of England to come to London for better things. Finding a job in London is not easy and she soon finds herself working at the smallest agency run by Anthony Lockwood. Things go wrong when one of their ghost hunting missions goes terribly wrong leaving Lockwood & Co. in a precarious position. Lucy, and her colleagues, Anthony and George will have to spend the night in the darkest most haunted house in London, if they are to save the company and their very lives.

“The Whispering Skull” is a chilling sequel to the first novel in the Lockwood & Co. series of novels. Six months after surviving a night at England’s most haunted house, the company is not in a much better position. A rival agency keeps on stealing their hard work until Anthony has enough and challenges them to a duel. They will now compete on a job and whoever loses has to declare their loss in the Times. Things are looking up and the company even gets a new client in Mr. Saunders who asks the company to accompany him at the excavation of a Victorian doctor that died trying to talk to the dead. Things go well until George’s curiosity gets the better of him, and unsealing the silver coffin, he steals a weird glass object to lets out a horrible phantom. Getting back home, Lucy soon notices that the skull in the ghost jar is making weirdly disturbing urgent whispers. The team is summoned by DEPRAC who informs them that Bickerstaff’s coffin just had a highly dangerous relic that may be a danger to the public stolen from it, and the team has to find it or else…

The Lockwood & Co. series is a popular novel series based on the paranormal, thriller, and fantasy genres. It was written by one of the most prolific authors from The United Kingdom, named Jonathan Stroud. This series is comprised of a total of 5 novels and 1 novella, which were released between the years 2013 and 2017. The 5th book has an expected release scheduled in the year 2017. The series deals with 3 young operatives from the Psychic Detentio Agency, who battle against a ghostly epidemic in London. The central characters described by author Stroud in the series include Lucy Carlyle, Anthony Lockwood, George Cubbins, Suzie Martin, Annie Ward, Inspector Barnes, Hugo Blake, and Sir John Wiliam Fairfax. Anthony Lockwood is introduced as the leader of the group, Lockwood & Co, who is very dashing and a little reckless. Quite often he is referred to as Lockwood. His talent is in sighting things, which seems to be better than that of George’s and Lucy’s. But, Lockwood’s hearing talent is considered very poor. He is well known for his thorough and quick approach towards the hauntings and feels very proud for having better abilities. George Cubbins is introduced as Lockwood’s deputy. He appears to be rather slovenly and portly, and is very cynical. His focus lies more on research works and preparation, unlike that of Lockwood and Lucy.

George likes to have long waiting times in between the assignments. Lucy is the one with whom he does not get along well, but with Lockwood he shares a very good bonding. As far as his appearance is concerned, George is chubby, small in height, and smart. The third most important member of the group is Lucy Carlyle. She is the newest one to join and is just 15 years old. Author Stroud has narrated the stories of the books through the viewpoint of Lucy. Lucy is known to get into fights very quickly. A stationmaster’s daughter from the northern regions of England, Lucy had initially joined an agency in her hometown. But, because of a disastrous case that resulted in the deaths of a few fellow agents, she left her family and job to start a new life in London. Lucy is known to have a very good hearing talent and empathy through the sense of touch. Suzie is depicted as the Mrs. Hope’s daughter. She comes across the group members in the absence of her mother and begins to investigate a case with them. Suzie seems very skeptical of the fact that the Lockwood & Co. is very young. The agency meets Annie Ward at the series’ beginning and when she returns again as a ghost after her death, the agency begins to investigate her murder mystery. Inspector Barnes is shown as a DEPRAC investigator, who cooperates with George and Lockwood in the investigations in spite of having a slack disgust with them. A wealthy industrialist named Sir Fairfax is also mentioned in the series, who is the owner of the Combe Carey Hall. After realizing that it is haunted by a ghost, he asks the agency to investigate and solve the mystery. With his financial support, the members of the agency go on to save their company from a huge debt. Hugo Blake is described as the 22 year old boyfriend of Annie Ward.

The first book to be released in the Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud is titled ‘The Screaming Staircase’. It was released by the Doubleday publication in 2013. The central theme of this book describes Lockwood’s agency helping the living ones when they get haunted by the returning dead ones. Author Stroud has mentioned in the beginning that England has been affected by the horrifying ghostly epidemic for over 50 years. To deal with such a haunting situation, a number of agencies for psychic investigations have come up and tried their level best, but none of them seem to have succeeded. Meanwhile, Lucy Carlyle moves to London as a talented and young agent and hopes to work for a notable career. But, she goes on to join a small and ramshackle agency run by the Anthony Lockwood. Lucy finds Anthony as a charismatic leader, even though she does not seem too happy with the agency. After one of their investigations goes terribly bad, they get a last chance to prove their worth. But, to do so, they have to spend a whole night in a highly haunted house in England and come out alive from there. The book is set in a city full of terrifying ghosts, suspense, humorous people, and stalked by the specters.

The sequel to the debut novel of the series was released under the title of ‘The Whispering Skull’. The Disney Hyperion published it in the year 2014. At the start of this book, author Stroud has depicted that Lockwood’s agency has not made any progress since its members survived at London’s haunted house and solve the mystery of the ghost living in it. Any investigation that Lockwood’s takes up gets swooped in by Quill Kipps and his Fitts agents’ team. In an angry mood, Anthony goes on to challenge Quill for a contest. They agree to the bet that the next time their teams will compete for a job, the one that loses will have to admit the defeat in the national newspaper. Soon, things begin when Mrs. Saunders hires the Lockwood & Co for a new job. She asks the agency members to be present at the time of Edmund Bickerstaff’s excavation. This Victorian doctor was known to have tried to talk to the dead people during his time. Mrs. Saunders wants Edmund’s coffin to be sealed in silver so as to prevent any type of supernatural trouble from taking place. Everything seems to have been going well until the curiosity of George gets him attracted to a horrible phantom. Back at home in Portland Row, Anthony accuses George for committing too many mistakes carelessly. Even Lucy seems to get distracted by some urgent whispers arising from a ghost jar. After a little while, Anthony’s team is asked to come to the DEPRAC headquarters by Inspector Barnes. When they reach there, Anthony got very much annoyed to find Quill Kipps already present there. Inspector Barnes informs them that the coffin of Edmund Bickerstaff was raided by someone and an unusual glass object that was buried with his corpse was stolen. Barnes believes that the glass is very dangerous and asks Quill and Anthony to find it as soon as possible. With this mission, the competition between these two also starts. And from the word go, they begin to outplay each other.

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