Charismatic leader Anthony Lockwood, graceless researcher George Cubbins, and talented teammate and narrator Lucy Carlyle return as the rogue team of psychic detection agents in this second addition to the “Lockwood & Co.” series. This time the trio are racing to recover a dangerous psychic relic called a “boneglass,” known to cause madness and even death in anyone who gazes into it. A number of unsavory characters in London — including a cruel black-market dealer, a violent scavenger, or relic man, and a mysterious collector — will do almost anything to attain the glass and Lucy and Lockwood soon find themselves in life-threatening situations. Additionally, Lockwood & Co.’s nemesis, the upscale Fittes Company Team, with whom Scotland Yard requires they work to solve the case, is dogging their steps. Oh, and the skull in the jar that George stole from Fittes Company is holding droll and duplicitous conversations with Lucy, which threaten to undermine the case as well as her relationships with George and Lockwood. New characters, including the unkempt and uncensored Flo Bones, enrich and expand Stroud’s alternate London, while a satisfyingly macabre scene with ghost rats and a breathtaking, death-defying escape from an undercover case gone wrong raise tensions and quicken the pace. Character growth in Lucy, George, and Lockwood individually and as a team adds to the depth as well as the enjoyment of the series. While the case of the “boneglass” is solved, other mysteries abound and the story ends in a cliffhanger of a more personal sort. (Ages 11–15)

*NOW A NETFLIX SERIES*

In this spine-tingling next book of the Lockwood & Co series, the ghost-hunting gang take on terrifying new challenges.

In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper.

Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom.

Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood's annoyance. Bickerstaff's coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found.

The author of the blockbuster Bartimaeus series delivers another amusing, chilling, and ingeniously plotted entry in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.

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

"A pleasure from tip to tail, this is the book you hand the advanced readers that claim they'd rather read Paradise Lost than Harry Potter. Smart as a whip, funny, witty, and honestly frightening at times, Stroud lets loose and gives readers exactly what they want. Ghosts, kids on their own without adult supervision, and loads of delicious cookies." -- Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal

"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

"A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls." -- Kirkus Reviews