The Hollow Boy (Lockwood & Co. Series #3)

by Jonathan Stroud Narrated by Emily Bevan

Overview

As a massive outbreak of supernatural Visitors baffles Scotland Yard and causes protests throughout London, Lockwood & Co. continue to demonstrate their effectiveness in exterminating spirits. Anthony Lockwood is dashing, George insightful, and Lucy dynamic, while the skull in the jar utters sardonic advice from the sidelines. 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. It comes as a great shock, then, when Lockwood and George introduce her to an annoyingly perky and hyper-efficient new assistant, Holly Munro.

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. But ghosts seem to be the least of Lockwood & Co.'s concerns when assassins attack during a carnival in the center of the city. 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. series.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"This story will keep you reading late into the night, but you'll want to leave the lights on. Stroud is a genius at inventing an utterly believable world which is very much like ours, but so creepily different. Put The Screaming Staircase on your 'need to read' list!"— Rick Riordan

PRAISE FOR THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

"Stroud shows his customary flair for blending deadpan humor with thrilling action, and the fiery interplay among the three agents of Lockwood & Co. invigorates the story (along with no shortage of creepy moments)."— Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR THE WHISPERING SKULL

*"An occult portal and its spectral guardian nearly cut short the careers of three rising young ghost hunters in this madcap sequel. . . For all their internecine squabbling, the three protagonists make a redoubtable team-and their supporting cast, led by the sneering titular skull in a jar, adds color and complications aplenty. Rousing adventures for young tomb robbers and delves into realms better left to the dead."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

PRAISE FOR THE WHISPERING SKULL

*"Stroud writes with a fine ear for dialog, a wry sense of humor, and a knack for describing haunted places. Creating tension that ebbs and flows, he slowly builds the dramatic narrative to a resounding crescendo, and he makes the quieter scenes that follow just as compelling."— Booklist (starred review)

PRAISE FOR THE HOLLOW BOY

*". . .Stroud brings his considerable storytelling skills to bear in this riveting sequel to The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull. . .the narrative has excellent pacing, fine descriptive passages, and a wry sense of humor. An unexpected development at the story's end will leave fans wildly impatient for volume four."— Booklist (starred review)

School Library Journal

★ 12/01/2015
Gr 5–8—As in the previous volumes, The Screaming Staircase (2013) and The Whispering Skull (2014, both Disney-Hyperion), the latest escapades of Lockwood and Co., a ghost-hunting agency staffed by the crack team of Anthony Lockwood, George Cubbins, and Lucy Carlyle, start with a hair-raising scene of murder, mayhem, and ghostly apparitions. Narrator Lucy finds herself on shaky ground as her ability to speak to ghosts grows ever more powerful and more dangerous, while changes to the agency in the form of a tidy, Type A assistant named Holly Munroe seem to spell doom for Lucy's future with the company. Meanwhile, The Problem grows exponentially worse and a fading, famous department store holds more horrors than Lucy has ever seen. A series of disturbing discoveries, building on revelations in the earlier books, make it clear that there is a more malevolent human force than The Problem at work in London, and Lucy, George, and Lockwood are drawing ever closer to its source. As always, the descriptions of the hauntings are genuinely frightening, especially that of a spindly, humanoid creature that crawls on all fours and whispers Lucy's name. VERDICT. Fans of the series will anxiously await Lockwood and Co.'s spine-tingling adventures in the next installment.—Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla, Darien Library, CT

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169495379
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Series:	Lockwood & Co. Series
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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