The Ruby in the Smoke: A Sally Lockhart Mystery
Book One

This book is certainly not one of Philip Pullman’s best. The Ruby in the Smoke is a mystery set in London in 1872. A young woman, sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart, has learned that her father has died. However, matters are a bit more complicated, and Sally is on the hunt to get some answers. Just how......more

You know this smart and swiftly paced Victorian mystery is written for young adults, right? You know that doesn't mean dumbed down or raw, but rather that it should not be cluttered up with obtrusive literariness or head-scratching ephemera. You say that Pullman struggles with figurative language an......more

It’s easy to see where the strength of Lyra Belacqua came from! Sally Lockhart is a sixteen year old orphan, independently wealthy by bequest, but hamstrung and constrained by the misogynistic rules of Victorian England. When she walks away from life with her mean-spirited aunt, it will take all of h......more

With a subtitle of "A Sally Lockhart Mystery," one might expect the first installment of said series to be about a girl who restores pinched puppies to their rightful dowdy owners. And you wouldn't be more wrong! The Ruby in the Smoke introduces Sally, a self-made woman already at 16 years old, with......more

I'm a big fan of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, so I thought I would give this a try. Heck, I even liked the Golden Compass movie (two words--Daniel Craig). This is what librarians call "young adult" literature i.e. "for teenagers." As such, I find it a bit disturbing. I'm a far cry from a bo......more