The Whispering Skull

Following their success in The Screaming Staircase where Lockwood & Co. spent the night in the most haunted house in Britain, our heroes had some business success, but things have been tapering off since then.  The Fittes Agency, with their superior manpower and historic name keeps getting in the way.

When the team is hired by Mr. Saunders to make safe the recently discovered grave of Edmund Bickerstaff, thing start to look up.  Bickerstaff was famous during his time for experiments in attempting to communicate with the dead, and his death is widely reported as horrific.  Everything goes well until they discover a strange bone mirror in Bickerstaff's coffin.  Lockwood and Lucy quickly neutralize the mirror, but it has affected George in some way.

When the mirror comes up missing, Lockwood and Co. must race against their rivals from Fittes to discover the mirror and claim the reward.

Additionally, Lucy's gift seems to be increasing in power, and the skull trapped in the ghost jar that spoke to her at the end of The Screaming Staircase is becoming increasingly talkative.  Can he really help in their investigation, or is he leading them into a trap?

There are even more villains, both spectral and human, in Jonathan Stroud's follow up to the fabulous The Screaming Staircase.  I highly recommend this sequel for more fiendish and Dickensian fun!