Shadow in the North (Sally Lockhart Series #2) by Philip Pullman

From the Publisher

The year is 1878, and Sally Lockhart has started her own financial consulting business. When a client loses a fortune in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally is determined to find out why. But as she comes closer to learning the identity of the firm's elusive owner, she discovers that her questions are far from simple --and that the answers could cost her her life.

"Fraud, fire, and bloody murder pursue Sally Lockhart in a fine sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke. Sally, now 22, is in business as a financial consultant. When she and her friends challenge corrupt financial interests, they find themselves in a web of intrigue that stretches from fetid slums of the poor to the corporate offices of the richest man in Europe. Sally's detective work reveals the connections between corrupt power and broken lives. The action is fast, scenes are tight and dramatic, the language is vivid, and the wealth of minor characters are sharply individualized. An immensely entertaining thriller."--(starred) Booklist. Reading level: 6.7.  

Publishers Weekly

Readers first met the intelligent, inquisitive and independent Sally Lockhart in The Ruby in the Smoke. Now comes this second brilliant bauble, perhaps more foreboding and terrifying than the first, thanks to Pullman's care in creating lively, superheroic characters and then, just as heroically, killing them off. Six years after the close of the first book, Sallynow 22 and still galloping over Victorian conventionsis embroiled in high-level business and government fraud; lest this sound dry, there is also a secret weapon (``the shadow'' of the title) under development north of London that, in this setting, is as threatening as a nuclear arsenal. The mystery has many more tangled elements than the first tale, but they are all untangled and quite elegantly tied up; readers will weep at the deeds of true villainy and smile through their tears at the close, as they are offered Sally's radiant look to the future, to unfold in a promised final volume of the trilogy. Ages 12-up. (March)

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up Murder, mayhem, and mystery are once again the bill of fare as Pullman returns to Victorian England and the unconventional life and adventures of Sally Lockhart. Now 22 and a spirited early champion of women's rights, Sally finds herself involved with chicanery at the highest levels of government as she attempts to recover money lost by one of the clients of her financial consulting firm. She and her old friends, private detective Frederick Garland and Jim Taylor, undertake investigations which lead to a deadly confrontation with the evil Axel Bellmann, the wealthiest man in Europe and creator of a weapon so powerful as to change the course of empires. As he did in The Ruby in the Smoke (Knopf, 1987), Pullman once again demonstrates his mastery of atmosphere and style. Readers of that first book may be put off, however, by the more somber tone and the thematic and symbolic weight of the second, which demand special maturity and sophistication of its readers not only to grapple intellectually with such issues as the moral implications of the Industrial Revolution and the dehumanization of man by machine but also to deal with both the sexual expression of Sally's growing love for Frederick and the violent deaths of leading characters. Too many of the characters seem to be manipulated for thematic ends, and one wonders if the conventions of the mystery/adventure genre are not too fragile to bear the weight of Pullman's thematic ambition. Such issues are sure to inspire spirited discussion, the resolution of which may have to await the final volume in the trilogy. Michael Cart, Beverly Hills Public Library

Product Details

• ISBN: 0375845151
  
• ISBN-13: 9780375845154
• Format: Paperback, 368pp
• Publisher: Random House Children's Books
• Pub. Date: September 2008
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 44,612
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Series: Sally Lockhart Series, #2