Stroud is a genius at inventing an utterly believable world which is very much like ours, but so creepily different. Praise for The Screaming Staircase 'This story will keep you reading late into the night, but you'll want to leave the lights on. Can the team get past their personal issues to save the day on all fronts, or will bad feelings attract yet more trouble? Danger abounds, tensions escalate, and new loyalties form in this third delightfully terrifying adventure in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. But ghosts seem to be the least of Lockwood & Co.'s concerns when assassins attack during a carnival in the center of the city. Meanwhile, there are reports of many new hauntings, including a house where bloody footprints are appearing, and a department store full of strange sounds and shadowy figures.

It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro. There is a new spirit of openness in the team now that Lockwood has shared some of his childhood secrets, and Lucy is feeling more and more as if her true home is at Portland Row. Anthony Lockwood is dashing, George insightful, and Lucy dynamic, while the skull in the jar utters sardonic advice from the sidelines. continue to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits. As a massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors baffles Scotland Yard and causes protests throughout London, Lockwood & Co. *NOW A NETFLIX SERIES* In this spine-tingling next book of the Lockwood & Co series, the ghost-hunting gang take on terrifying new challenges.

The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud