Rating: 
Summary: Sad yet exciting
Review: In the second book of this wonderful triolgy Sally Lockhart has set out to retrieve a large sum of money one of her clients has lost. Her friend Fredrick Garland has also tacken a case in which a magician is being hunted. Both cases tie in together and Sally and Fred find themselves tracking one of the most twisted and sick men in London. Not all the characters from the Ruby in the Smoke are back but most of them are. I found that this book was very sad but the sadness added to the plot. The end leaves you begging for more just as the Ruby in the Smoke did. This was a very good book and i would reccomed it to anyone who likes suspense, mystery, and adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Warning: Spoiler Review by Disgruntled Reader
Review: Why on earth does Mr. Pullman continue to labor under the misapprehension that he writes children's books?This book, like everything else by the same author, suffers from egregious logic lapses. In this case it's that a weapon "too terrible to be used" would be a gun that ran on railroad tracks, since it could be used by a government against its own population. This, of course, would only work in a country where the population was too dumb to think of blowing up the railroad tracks. Two of the main characters from _Ruby in the Smoke_, the preceding book, are missing without a trace and they never get mentioned. It's as if the author had broken up with them and didn't want to talk about it. The connection to the preceding book is tenuous, not to say non-existent. Aside from the graphic sex which is probably acceptable in children's books these days, and the fact that all of the characters are adults and that much of the plot hinges on financial and stock market concerns, the main character loses her dog and her fiance in graphic violence. I guess that sort of thing doesn't upset most child readers, but it sure isn't my idea of fun. I really wish I'd spent the time I spent reading this book reading something else. I guess the intention of the books is to mirror the "penny dreadfuls" that one of the characters is always reading. Well, the book costs more than a penny, but other than that I'd say it was a success.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Stars - Not as good as the 1st but still excellent
Review: Sally Lockhart is a heroine for all seasons. She considers herself a feminist although she does nothing else for the cause except ignore the sentiment that women only exhibit "susceptibility to the vapors". She's now 22 years old and able to find a sufficient client base of women who need Sally's ability to provide financial consultation. Sally's friend Jim is back in the book which is good since he's the best developed male in all three books. How can you not like someone as verbally prolific as Jim who describes the case (and the book itself) as "There's fraud, there's financial jiggery-pokery, there's spiritualistic humbug, there's all kinds of wickedness, maybe worse." Later when Sally gives him a sisterly kiss, he remarks "That's better than a whisticaster in the rattlers (a smack in the gob)". Sally's still friends with the Garlands, who own a photographic studio and detective agency. Fred Garland develops into a love interest. One day, a retired school teacher tells Sally that her advice for the teacher to invest in a company has had disastrous results. I had to wonder if they had heard of diversification in those days since the teacher had "put all her eggs in one basket". I was also surprised Sally didn't know the company had gone bankrupt, but those are minor points. Sally resolves to look into the matter. Her investigations bring her threats and dastardly deeds from the owner of the bankkrupt company. It develops that her investigation has links to one Fred Garland has ongoing involving a weasel like magician and other mediums who are necessary to provide enough clues to lead the intrepid investigators in the right direction. The clues are too convenient, the bad guys aren't too belivable, the plot twists a bit too contrived, but it doesn't matter. There's a charm in this series that comes out everywhere, especially its characters. One is described as "He's a Unitarian, Henry; a man of conscience, you might say." The squalor of London is well described but there always seems to be hope in the lives of the survivors. Not as good as the first but better than the third. Read them in order and you will always remember the reading as time well spent.
Rating: 
Summary: The Shadow is coming...
Review: This book was really good but the ending could have used a little work. It was not as good as the Ruby in the Smoke but if you read that you have to read this book. It is all about Sally ( of course) and Jim, Fred and all the usual characters with some new ones. One of Sally's client has just lost a lot of money on the addvice Sally gave her ( for Sally is a financial consultant). In the meantime Jim is working in theatres and one of the actors is being chased for some unknown reason. Again, Sally and her friends are on a case but Fred is now a dectective and wants to marry her but she does not accept. They are in a fight so they are not really working together. Will they work together to solve the mystery? Read the book to find out!
Rating:
Summary: A polemic as cold and slippery as ice
Review: Pullman has a rare and valuable talent: his chosen field is the young adult novel, and he writes for young adults. Frankly, without condescension, and with a lively intelligence and subtle humor that shows he respects his audience as much as they (indubitably do) respect him. This novel shows a young woman in full command of her faculties being put into the teeth of an excruciating moral predicament, and if the road she eventually finds out of it is a simple one, that is because Pullman is not above granting a final bit of wish-fulfillment after he's run us through the wringer. I'll leave the plot summaries to other reviewers; it's enough to say that it's a lively and political mystery / thriller and its coincidences, while implausible, do not betray their own internal logic. Pullman is first and foremost an observer of character, and what makes this book something that makes me, a 29-year-old guy who tends to read much more austere stuff, take notice, is the sheer aliveness of the characters. There's Sally, of course, a resolutely feminist young woman whose resolve and determination are surely of her time, even if some of her anxieties and dilemmas seem more resonant with the present than Victorian England; Frederick, her friend and peer who she loves, and with whom she argues helplessly and often; Jim, their young, streetwise friend, who is capable, brave, and eminently self-aware; and a large cast of supporting characters, many of them women, who are sharply limned and full of their own stories. The fact that Sally is living out what would have been, at best,a Victorian woman's fantasy is dealt with elsewhere; the fact that huge swathes of the dialogue is anachronistic is irrelevant. What sets this apart from other young adult novels, even as it evokes them, is the very real sense of moral hazard and the awful consequences of the modern age that it portrays. The world into which Sally, Frederick, and everyone else is being swept is one where the old hunger for power is being given new, terrible means of finding its voice. The clarity with which Pullman evokes this sense of foreboding is remarkable, as is his restraint. At its heart this novel is a warning of terrible things that have already come to pass. It is insistent without being didactic, it shows rather than tells. In the end it convinces. While the Lockhart trilogy is not as stunning as the His Dark Materials books, it's not trying to be. It's about one woman, her friends, and the world whose birth they must survive. If they are occasionally more than human, that might just be because something more than human is necessary to survive in this new world.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Second Novel for the Sally Lockhart Trilogy!
Review: This is the second book in the Sally Lockhart Trilogy and totally wonderful.
The story follows Sally some years later after The Ruby in the Smoke, now a financial consultant with her own company.
One of Sally's clients come to her one day, losing a large sum of money that her brother left her, due to the collapse of a company she invested in. Sally, of course, is totally outraged, and sets out to investigate the cause of this collapse and get her client back the money.
Following this, a complicated plot of twists and turns come up, involving a very troubled "magician," Mackinnon, who is being followed around by men, attempting to murder him after he witnessed a murder through his psychic powers, the powerful man, Mr. Bellman, who is suspected by Sally to have made the company collapse and is attempting to kill Mackinnon, with more new characters including Lady Mary, Nellie Bly, Isabel Meredith, Lord Wyneth, and old characters including Fred and Jim - all twisted into this mystery and the new invention of a Steam Gun.
This book is a two thumbs up thriller and totally heart-wrenching (I'm not saying anything, but I was practically crying at the end). It was tragic and excellent. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: I really liked this book and would reccomend it to anyone who likes a mystery or a triller. Sally Lockhart is one of the most interesting characters I have ever read. She really makes you like her and the people around her. I can only say that this is a brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: Continuing mystery and suspense
Review: The Shadow in the North follows on from Philip Pullman's 'The Ruby in The Smoke'. Sally Lockhard is no longer 16, she's a young, fiercly independent woman with a mystery to solve. As before, Pullman draws on his knowledge of Victorian London (and, almost certainly, his interest in photography). The Shadow in the North is one of Pullman's masterpieces of characterization. He has the phenominal ability to make his readers fall totally in love with his main characters - even to the point of infatuation and, at the end of SITN, you know Sally Lockhart as well as you would know your own daughter. You're proud of her. You even wish you could be like her. Exquisitely written, The Shadow in the North is packed tight with diverse, often terrifying characters. The plot takes dark, unexpected twists. The story-telling is amazing. Pullman is one of the few authors who succeeds on both sides of the Atlantic. When you read his books, you know why. The Shadow in the North is entirely impossible to put down until you've turned the final page... then you want more.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: No matter how many times I re-read Shadow in the North, I will never lose the infatuation of happiness (no, it really is much more of a contentment than happiness) it granted me. Pullman is one of the best authors of his day, and even ours. People usually classify classics as large, thick novels that introduce lessons to a blind world, or by the author's popularity in the time period. Not many people say that books today can ever qualify to be a "classic," but they're wrong. Either the search for great novels has ended, or no one has ever matched the requirements to a young adult book. If you only get one thing out of this review, remember this-"Shadow in the North" is small, sparkling gem in a musty trunk of fadded copper pennies. Pullman has the gift of making his characters 3-dimensional, which makes you fall in love with them. Looking back at the previous sentence I know that it can never possibly reach out to grab others into paying attention, but I can't really explain the phenominom of the effect it had on me saying it any other way. Reviewers tend to use that sentence-"you fall in love with them"-way too lightly, and as a result fellow consumers ignore the statement altogether. The mystery, or I should say the plot, is an intense part of novel which grips the reader to a point of no return (never setting it down when beginning to read), a tangled web of events that first seems quite unclear. But as you progress into SITN, the web becomes straightened, and events fall into place like puzzle pieces into the box portrait. I strongly urge you to read this novel, and then to rate my review. I laughed,I cried (an emotional cry, that in a way is much deeper than any physical tears), became agitated, and was wrapped with attention througth the duration of the book. I'm sorry if I trailed off into space during this review, but when an author can get a person(and other readers of the novel) as involved as I was in his work, then the result is bound to be brilliant. by Natalie Rygiel
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is undoubtedly my favorite of the trilogy. The mystery is well constructed and unfolds better than the first. Pullman's excellent writing kept me glued to the pages - I read it from start to finish continuously. The new characters introduced that are entwined in the mystery are interesting, and old favorites from the first book return. The ending angered me beyond belief(I don't want to give away what happens so I won't elaborate), but it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book.
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