8 Books To Read If You Like ‘Lockwood & Co’
Netflix has gone the route of another adaptation that has a niche group of book readers. Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and Co consists of five books. There are three young operatives of a Psychic Detention Agency who battle an epidemic of ghosts in London. The first season on Netflix reportedly combines the first two books in the series The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull.
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase
In The Screaming Staircase, Lucy Carlyle is a talented young agent who wants to make a career for herself. Instead, she finds herself joining the smallest agency in the city that uses unconventional methods. Lockwood & Co try to save their reputation and have to spend the night in one of the most haunted houses in England.
Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull
In The Whispering Skull, Anthony, Lucy, and George may have survived that one night, but Lockwood & Co hasn’t made much progress. Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires them to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. All goes well until George’s curiosity attracts a horrible phantom.
Lockwood & Co on Netflix
The Netflix series highlights this tiny startup that two teenage boys run; Anthony Lockwood (Cameron Chapman) and George Karim (Ali Hadji-Heshmanti) and a newly arrived, supremely psychically gifted girl named Lucy Carlyle (Ruby Stokes). The three of them change history with their diverse set of skills.
The supernatural elements throughout the series are what keep the viewer engaged. So, if you’re a fan of ghost stories and rich historical lore, then the series below are the books for you. Not only is the Lockwood & Co series spooky, but the books are fun to read because of the trio everyone will start rooting for. Whether you’re a fan of Stroud’s book series or just started watching the series on Netflix, here are the eight books we recommend to dive into another world:
The Haunting of Hillwood Farm by Kathryn Knight
Synopsis: After tragedy strikes, Callie Sinclair is left with a gift she never wanted – the ability to communicate with ghosts. But when a desperate widow begs for her help, she reluctantly agrees to investigate the storage occurrences at Hillwood Farm.
*Best Romantic Suspense of 2018 at N.N. Light’s Book Heaven Reviews.
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
Synopsis: Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen hard, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper. The Dead are rising in Philadelphia. And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor… from her brother.
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Synopsis: Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon – like all the girls in her class – she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a newspaper reporter. Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: Her father is found dead. The more Jo uncovers her father’s death, her suspicions grow.
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Synopsis: Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London to start a new life at boarding school just as a series of brutal murders mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper killing spree of more than a century ago has broken out across the city. And now Rory has become his next target…unless she can tap her previously unknown abilities to turn the tables.
This is book one out of five in the Shades of London series.
The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux
Synopsis: No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work. But suddenly they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they’ve obsessed about for years.
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Synopsis: Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission — to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
This is book one out of eight in The Invisible Library series.
The Final Six by Alexandra Monir
Synopsis: When Leo, an Italian championship swimmer, and Naomi, a science genius from California, are two of the twenty-four teens drafted into the International Space Training Camp, their lives are forever altered. After erratic climate change has made Earth a dangerous place to live, the fate of the population rests on the shoulders of the final six who will be scouting a new planet.
This is book one of two of The Final Six series.
The Forgotten Room by Lincoln Child
Synopsis: Professor Jeremy Logan (the quirky and charismatic “enigmalogist” who specializes in solving problems of the strange or seemingly supernatural variety) receives an urgent summons. from the director of Lux, one of the oldest and most respected think tanks in America. An unexplainable tragedy has taken place in the sprawling compound located on the coastline of Newport, Rhode Island. One of his doctors, overcome by erratic behaviour, violently attacked his assistant before meeting with a gruesome self-inflicted end.
This is book four out of six in the Jeremy Logan series.
Supernatural stories are always fun to dive into. Ghost stories have the perfect balance between investigative tactics and rich history tied to objects. It’s a subgenre that has red herrings and fun twists to keep audiences engaged. Do you think Lockwood & Co is an under-appreciated series? It feels that there is a niche section within the reading community that love Stroud’s work.
