The Creeping Shadow

Lockwood & Co, Book 4

By: Jonathan Stroud

Narrated by: Emily Bevan

A terrible crime forces Lucy to turn to Lockwood for help and sets them on the trail of dark secrets at the heart of London society. Both professionally and personally, their investigation stirs up forces they may not be able to control....

Ghouls and spectres, thrills and tension in this brand-new instalment in Jonathan Stroud's best-selling series.

©2016 Jonathan Stroud (P)2016 Random House Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Stroud is a genius." (Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series)

So Darn Good!

Sometimes, you find a series so great, you wonder why it isn't the next Harry Potter. Because truly, The Lockwood series has all the things that made Harry Potter great: intricate plot and worldbuilding, intriguing characters, a fascinating story, and excellent pacing/writing. For me, these books do to mild horror what Potter does for high fantasy - they create an immersive experience that you never want to end and an appeal for all ages.

Story: Lucy has left Lockwood to protect her former employer from himself. But living with the Skull has its own problems, even if she seems to be doing decently in her free-lance work. But she has stumbled upon corruption in the agencies and then the skull is stolen. Lucy will have to team up with Lockwood again - but he appears to be even more reckless than before.

Quite a bit of the large backstory was revealed in this book four - all clearly leading to the finale in the next and final book. The interactions of Lucy and the skull were so well written as to be laugh out loud funny and bone chilling at the same time. Even more interesting, we get a picture of what the skull originally looked like - and it is quite shocking. I am even more intrigued to find out the mystery behind the skull in the jar.

Of course, there are great interactions with Lucy and Lockwood and the Mulder and Ssully type of uncomfortable attraction. Lucy is great at denial and Lockwood is too preoccupied - but darn if it isn't so well written that you want to lock them into a room together. George and Holly are as distinct and well drawn as ever and the addition of Kipps makes the story all that more engaging. I'm glad that Stroud doesn't drop characters between books and instead seamlessly incorporates them back into the plot.

This is definitely one of my favorite reads/listens of the year. Extremely well written, exciting, genuinely scary at moments, and laugh out loud funny at others. Note: I listened to the Audible version and the narrator did an excellent job (though I wish the series kept the same narrator throughout).

Story

Why do you make this required I don’t want to write 15 works and won’t write a review in future as I can’t get out of the screen

Can’t wait to hear the last book of the series.

I enjoyed the 4th book a lot. The narrator was not as good as in the previous ones but except giving the performance 5 stars, I only gave 4.

Looove it!

The story is absolutely amazing! Not only for young adults, by the way! I’m in my late thirties and enjoying every word of it! Touching, fun and scary at times. I wish there were more of these books!

Top book. Well written and crispy

Loved it as the rest of the series. Stroud has a catchy writing style. I love the skull. I don’t like as much the reader’s accent if I may say

Narrator ruined it

Not sure why the narrator was changed but she changed all the voices. They don’t suit the characters as they are nothing like the last two narrators who kept it similar. Really dissatisfied as I was really enjoying this series.
I hate how cartoonish and ugly the characters sound.