First, the good stuff: Anton Lesser is an amazing narrator who makes me hear and see each character differently. His portrayal of Jim is so good that ..Show More »it actually brought me to tears a couple of times. His superb narration outweighs any of the not-so-good stuff.

The not-so-good stuff: I didn't get as attached to the plot as I had with Ruby in the Smoke - I think because it was more about the seamy underbelly of the London rich than it was about the seamy underbelly of the poor, which is much more engaging to me - but I still thought it was well-written.

What was tougher for me to get past was that because of the way the book starts off and brings in characters, I felt almost immediately that I had missed a book in between The Ruby in The Smoke and this one. There are a couple of characters who are quite established although they were not in Book 1, and others have disappeared (like Adelaide) that I really wanted to know more about. I've looked around online and it appears that there was actually another book called The Tin Princess that is not considered part of the trilogy but uses many of the same characters. I'm guessing that's where I'll find the missing pieces. Unfortunately, it's not on Audible yet. If I had it to do over again, I'd read The Tin Princess first before listening to Shadow in the North.

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This very well read (Anton Lesser) edition of the third of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy is, like the other works in the series, rather dark..Show More »er than one quite expects, and not everyone or everything is better in the end. In other words, far more like real life than most. The story is compelling, the characters (mostly new in this book) are interesting and unexpected. The book can certainly be read standalone - there's really no requirement to read the earlier volumes - but some of the context is, obviously, lost.

This suspensefull and compelling novel is set in 19th century London, with a back drop of the pogroms in Eastern Europe and the non-entity of women. Sally is an independent financial advisor, with a child and no husband, who is thrust from her relatively privileged position into the East End. Her determination to survive, to protect her child and her reputation, and to overcome her enemy are mixed with the learning process of a privileged Londoner suddenly finding herself very much a part of the open sewer that was the East End. Where she makes new friends and unexpected allies in her fight.

Compelling listening, I found myself finding excuses to go on long drives so I could listen to this book. Highly recommended.


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