She is 22 in this sequel, and no longer a minor by today’s definition. Here, I think the problem is really how publishers classify novels, not the content itself. I’ve read a number of criticisms of this book based on the fact that a “young adult” novel depicts sexual relationships and/or violence. The book also begins exploring Victorian sexual mores and it has a number of violent scenes. I don’t find fault with his criticisms, but I’m much farther to the left than most Americans, so I also don’t see myself as representative on this subject. In this book, however, Pullman is examining the excesses of corporations and the growth of the military-industrial complex.

I doubt many readers see his platforms as controversial. In the first novel of the series, Pullman criticizes colonialism, the opium wars and trade, and Victorian limits on women’s rights. More importantly, Pullman definitely brings a political mindset to his work, and I can see how someone whose political views differed from the author’s would find that annoying. There are a couple of plot points that are a bit hard to swallow, but I don’t tend to focus much on that as long as they don’t apply to something I study personally. I enjoyed this book, but I also saw some weaknesses in it. Sally begins investigating the shipping company in the hopes of returning her client’s money to her, while Jim and Frederick are asked to provide protection to a magician who claims to have knowledge of a murder. Soon after, Sally becomes interested in the ship’s destruction when she learns that one of her clients lost a great deal of money she had invested in the shipping company whose ship went down. This books opens as a ship vanishes in the Baltic. Long Review: In the six intervening years between the first book in the series and this sequel, Sally has opened a financial consultancy business and Jim and Frederick have become private investigators.

Short Review: The slightly-less brilliant sequel to The Ruby in the Smoke, read just as brilliantly by Anton Lesser. A Sally Lockhart Mystery: The Shadow in the North

Philip pullman the shadow in the north