It's possible this is character bias because the story is from Lucy's perspective, but it's also possible I don't care. This is done by examining the perspective of the sarcastic and slightly egomaniacal djinni Bartimaeus. The son of the wealthy owner at the time had gone crazy, stabbed a servant, and chased the injured boy up the stairs, from which he had fallen to his death. I loved the additional Lockwood agent element to the tale but be warned – the new girl can be very unlikeable. The third book introduces a new character who mixes things up in the way that a newcomer does to a firm pre-established friendship.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. The intense rivalry between the ghost agencies is developed more in this third book, as is the world, building, and breadth of the plot. Ghouls and spectres, thrills and tension in this brand-new instalment in Jonathan Stroud’s bestselling series. She jumps back to safety only because the Skull teases her that Holly Munro would never do anything so stupid.

Chill, miasma, malaise and creeping fear – you can feel them rolling at you down the alleys, or stealing out of the houses as you pass.

It's something a lot of MG books have to deal with, because for the most part, kids need space to have adventures. Lucy’s character is developed a lot more and although some of the mystery surrounding Lockwood himself dissipates, George, who is often treated off-handedly by Lockwood, is developing in this book too.It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro. Now, every night at midnight, people who can see ghosts—in other words, Children—feel a terrible, frightening presence and see bloody footprints appearing on the stairs. The author does constant, small synthesis of important parts of the stories that appear in the previous books, but it's cooler to read them! The Bone Glass had been made from the bones of dead people so that people could see through it to “the other side,” into death itself.

They quickly collect all the bones and take them to the Fittes furnaces, the only place where such ghostly “sources” can be destroyed. But I can’t even complain about that just pointing it out, not complaining bc im so bloody invested in this series, I will die when it ends, plz I don’t deserve this kinda pain.I’ll also just mention that Holly is black – which is relevant given the recent awareness of lack of black characters in chidren’s books, and given that all the other major players at Lockwood are white. I loved the first Lockwood book but didn't enjoy book 2 quite as much so wasn't sure about continuing the series. The main case was solved but there weren't any clues as to who did it, as in the previous two books, and this seemed somewhat unsatisfying. And with each book, the layers get pulled back more, revealing how dangerous and disturbing a world in which ghosts are everywhere and can do humans harm might be.