Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase, Book 1

By: Jonathan Stroud

Narrated by: Miranda Raison

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A sinister problem has occurred in London: all nature of ghosts, haunts, spirits, and specters are appearing throughout the city, and they aren't exactly friendly. Only young people have the psychic abilities required to see - and eradicate - these supernatural foes. Many different Psychic Detection Agencies have cropped up to handle the dangerous work, and they are in fierce competition for business.

In The Screaming Staircase, the plucky and talented Lucy Carlyle teams up with Anthony Lockwood, the charismatic leader of Lockwood and Co., a small agency that runs independent of any adult supervision. After an assignment leads to both a grisly discovery and a disastrous end, Lucy, Anthony, and their sarcastic colleague, George, are forced to take part in the perilous investigation of Combe Carey Hall, one of the most haunted houses in England. Will Lockwood and Co. survive the Hall's legendary Screaming Staircase and Red Room to see another day?

Listeners who enjoyed the action, suspense, and humor in Jonathan Stroud's internationally bestselling Bartimaeus books will be delighted to find the same ingredients, combined with deliciously creepy scares, in his thrilling and chilling Lockwood and Co. series.

©2013 Jonathan Stroud (P)2013 Listening Library

Couldn't put it down!

Any additional comments?

Lockwood and Co. comprises a compelling story, good characters and fantastic narration. A great little alt-history narrative that flips the whole steam punk 'new technology in Victorian times' genre on it's head and makes old technology more useful in modern times (while keeping the actual time period ambiguous enough to prevent the story from becoming dated too quickly). Stroud gives the characters dialogue that is neither too loaded down with slang nor too staid to keep you from believing these are real teenagers. Miranda Raison is pitch perfect; her male character voices are believable and her emotional tone never goes astray. I can't wait to listen to the next installment and I will look for other books narrated by Ms. Raison.

Very entertaining!

I enjoyed listening to these as an adult! Very entertaining and easy to listen to.

So enjoyable!

Story was very fun and different. Enjoyed it a bunch. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

the whole book

i love this series so much like it’s so fantasy & lore building centric UGH can’t believe they cancelled the show

Excellent Story And Narration

I liked everything about this audio book. To me, the story was compelling, and the narrator was engaging.

Outstanding story and narration

This was first time diving into the world of Lockwood and Co. Haven’t read the books so was listening fresh. Really enjoyed the world but WOW the narration was top notch.

The Start of Something Great

I loved this. The story is great, the characters are charming, and I could listen to the narrator all day long.

I came across this book because I have read all of the Bartimaeus books by Mr Stroud and enjoyed those, and Goodreads sent me an email telling me about "new releases by authors I've read", including this one.

I liked this even better than the Bartimaeus books because it seems more universally appealing. As with those, there's still some magic involved here, but it's fairly subtle, and you get more of the "human side" of things. Plus, it's a mystery with enough plot twists that you spend good time on the edge of your seat.

This is likely intended for a young-ish audience as the protagonists are teenagers. Yet, I'm a 37-year-old whose children are far too young for books of this ilk, and I absolutely loved it. To enjoy it, you don't have to believe in magic, but you do need to like hearing stories in which the characters display some degree of supernatural power.

The narrator makes it incredibly enjoyable to listen to, capably bringing the characters to life.

Mr Stroud, please hurry up and write another; and Ms Raison, please insist upon narrating it.

Very bad choice of narrators

The narrator is a good reader but not a true performer. All of the voices sound the same and, if anything some of the male characters have higher voices than the female. Also, as one of the other reviewers said, there are some really good ironic comments in the story and the narrator reads through them and totally misses the irony. I have heard other books with what I think was the same narrator and they weren't well done either.

The story is entertaining, although the "spirits" in the story seem to vary in how powerful they are based on what is convenient for the author. Sometimes the characters seem a little shallow and the events aren't written in order to be very "believable".

Overall I liked the book and I bought the second in the series and will buy the next one too.

Very Enjoyable Read / close to the adaptation

I only picked this up because of the adaptation, but I absolutely loved it! As the story continues with the next 4 books, you are on for an exciting adventure. although it was excruciatingly painful for me when the voice actor of Lucy (narrator) changed. She sounded English in the first two books and then started to sound almost Scottish. From the reader, please try to keep the same voices.

Lovely!

Absolutely loved this book and Miranda reads beautifully! I can't wait to hear the next one!