An immensely entertaining thriller.'-(starred) Booklist. The action is fast, scenes are tight and dramatic, the language is vivid, and the wealth of minor characters are sharply individualized. Sally's detective work reveals the connections between corrupt power and broken lives. 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, now 22, is in business as a financial consultant. 'Fraud, fire, and bloody murder pursue Sally Lockhart in a fine sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke. 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. When a client loses a fortune in the unexpected collapse of a British shipping firm, Sally is determined to find out why. The year is 1878, and Sally Lockhart has started her own financial consulting business. (Ages 12 and older) -Emilie Coulter From the Inside Flap: Make sure book 3, The Tiger in the Well, is close at hand as you near the end of this one. When one of Sally's clients loses a large sum of money invested in a shipping firm and Fred encounters a conjurer on the lam from underworld thugs, the two begin to find links in these apparently disparate cases.Įxquisitely written and packed with a wonderfully diverse, often terrifying cast of characters and dark twists and turns of plot, the second installment of the Sally Lockhart trilogy-an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Booklist Editors' Choice, and a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery-is entirely impossible to put down. But her photographer friend, Fred Garland, has a habit of drawing her into his private detective work owing to her skill in both finances and firearms. Six years after solving the mysteries surrounding the death of her father (in The Ruby in the Smoke), Sally Lockhart has set up her own consulting business.

Philip pullman the shadow in the north