Rating: 
Summary: good read
Review: This book is a quick, fun read. The herione is left alone with no close family, with the exception of a harsh aunt. After receiving an interesting letter of warning, she seeks out a strange name and encounters a group of strange and very different friends, as well as enemies. All in all, she uncovers her father's murderer, solves the mystery of the ruby, and even discovers a possible love. Very cute story with a lot of action and witty dialogue that will keep a reader interested.
Rating: 
Summary: Murders, mysteries, and more
Review: This was not Pullman's first book for children ("Count Karlstein" holds that honor) nor his last (as the "His Dark Materials" series will attest). Nonetheless, the Sally Lockhart trilogy remains one of Philip Pullman's best known mystery series for the kiddie set. Following the trials and tribulations of Sally Lockhart, a sixteen-year-old orphan, the author deftly describes an 1872 London in all its foul glory. In this book you've the elements of a penny dreadful. An adorable urchin boy, an ancient evil woman, pirates, opium, a heroine and her intrepid hero, etc.
The series is not unlike that of Elizabeth Peters's beloved Amelia Peabody mysteries, come to think of it. In both cases a woman living in Victorian England must deal with mysteries and murder while retaining her head (and sense of humor). But while the Amelia Peabody books are for adults and strictly pro-colonial, the Sally Lockhart series is for teens (the violence and sexual references, unfortunately, make this necessary) and post-colonial. Pullman has taken a genre of fiction and given it depth and heart. This book admits wholeheartedly that England was responsible for growing opium in India and forcing China to purchase it (even going so far as to point out that the stuff was stamped with the queen's official seal). There is a Chinese pirate in this book, the villainous Ah Ling, but he is just as Dutch as he is Chinese. Pullman isn't going to lure the reader into believing the smog filled evenings of 19th century London were all Sherlock Holmes and Dickens. Crimes were made and lives were destroyed in this violent ignorant time.That said, "The Ruby in the Smoke" is not Pullman's best book. Those readers spoiled by "His Dark Materials" are going to find the going here rather light. Nonetheless, Pullman knows how to knit a good yarn. Action scenes are ah-plenty and downtime is ah-few. If you'd like a rip-roaring story to get you through the day, you could do no better than to pick this puppy up and read it cover to cover.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but don't expect "His Dark Materials"
Review: Straightforward teen historical mystery, as Sally Lockhart must overcome her orphanhood, her enemies, and Victorian ideas about what is and is not suitable, to figure out the mystery surrounding the death of her father. Pullman is a powerful storyteller, and one can feel that engine purring along just below the surface of this book. Yet there is not the depth as in the "His Dark Materials" series. He's not making any major point (other than, perhaps, that Victorian England could have used a good dose of feminism). Perhaps Pullman had not yet realized that teens could be told a story with adult ideas and concepts. Still, there are flashes of brilliance. Pullman's Victorian England is well-researched, but there is the occaisonal gaffe, as when he has a character in a cheap dockside pub drink a GLASS of gin--it would almost certainly have been made of pewter, due to breakage and the expense of proper glassware. I'm always a bit disappointed in historical novels when characters introduce concepts from later times. Sally does so, both with feminism, and with introducing marketing concepts unheard of in Victorian times. In a way, she acts like a character in a time travel novel, and it is a bit grating. Worth reading to trace the development of Pullman's writing.
Rating:
Summary: The most authentic of the crackerjack series
Review: Phillip Pullman is largely successful in this first homage to the sensation novels and gothics of the Victorian period in this gladly feminist novel for teenagers. All the elements you'd expect from Charlotte Brontë, Wilkie Collins and Conan Doyle are there: a headstrong and independent young heroine, a cold and heartless guardian aunt, a mysterious jewel from India, East End skullduggery, and all manner of plots and counterplots. This is a good read, and Sally and her friends make for involving and even admirable characters. And thus I think the reviewer below who thinks this book inappropriate for teenagers is far off the mark .
Rating: 
Summary: Not good enough to excuse unsuitable content
Review: This book was classroom reading in my daughter's 7th grade Advanced English class. There are many murders, including murders (in self-defense) by two of the main characters. Opium smoking is used as a plot device to recover lost memories, which helps solve the central mystery and move the action forward. Even the heroine smokes opium to enhance her memory. The book was by no stretch a good enough read to excuse this content for this age group. It reads like a cross between a harlequin romance and a Nancy Drew mystery.
Rating:
Summary: A good read.
Review: I read this book after my 13 year old daughter did. She really liked the book and can't wait to read the others. I did enjoy the story of Sally and how she came to be. I did feel sorry for her and all that she had to go through. You've got to give Sally credit in that she is a smart young lady and can figure things out. I liked the dark characters and thought that it was a well written book. I will read the other books just to know how Sally grows up and what her next adventures are.
Rating:
Summary: Dreadfully Boring
Review: Dreadfully boring. The ending was good, but the beginning is just awful. I only finished it because I was doing a book report on it. Just awful, especially compared to The Golden Compass. 1 Star, and only because I can't give 0.
Rating:
Summary: In the same style as Carolyn Keen's Nancy Drew Mysteries
Review: I read this book when it was reccomended to me by a school in the district and read it in a day. It's a page turner but I felt it to be very much like a Nancy Drew book, so if you enjoy those kinds of page turning mysteries, go ahead and read this book. You'll enjoy every word of it.
Rating:
Summary: A good mystery, not to be confused with His Dark Materials
Review: I read this book after finishing the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's obviously a Pullman work, from the strong female heroine down to the complex, fabled power of the titled ruby. Somehow, though, the book felt a bit like Pullman's test-run for the HDM trilogy. Sally, the daughter of a shipping and businessman, is suddenly orphaned when her father dies a half world away. Left to her own devices, she must piece together the clues of his mysterious death and his final message to her. Along the way, she meets and befriends a motley crew of helpers and makes startling discoveries about her own birth and parentage (a familiar tale to anyone who's read HDM). The book is a solid and entertaining mystery, particularly for a younger segment of "young-adult" readers (ages 10 and up, I'd say), and Pullman's writing is lovely. The book has little of the darkness or subversive subtext that Pullman's more famous trilogy offers, though, and should not be considered a necessary next-read after His Dark Materials.
Rating:
Summary: Great start to a series
Review: This mystery set in Victorian London centers around 16 year old Sally Lockhart, who's Father has just been murdered. Sally sets out to discover why her Father was killed but she uncovers many more questions than answers. Why do the words "seven blessings" scare a man to death? Why does a evil old woman want to kill her for a ruby she doesn't have? And what happened to a good deal of her inheritance money? Sally soon learns she must find the answer to these questions if she hopes to survive. I've read a bit of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Series and wasn't too impressed bit I'm so glad I decided to pick up this book. I enjoyed pretty much everything about this book. The setting, characters, and plot were all highly entertaining. Although it's a quick read, it's still a well fleshed out and complicated story. I'm amazed Pullman was able to pull all that off in such a short book. I'll certainly be reading the other books in the series and maybe I'll even give His Dark Materials another shot.
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