Feel like the odds are stacked against you?

In the world of Lockwood & Co., the barrier between this world and the next has broken down and ghosts have invaded our world. I know, you can’t see them – adults can’t – but they are there and, if they touch you, you die.

Luckily, they are visible to children.

And, in this world, squads of children – led of course, by capable adults – have been trained in the skills required to combat the spirits and neutralize them: mainly magic and swordplay, for ghosts are sensitive to iron.

One of the children trained in this way is Lucy Carlisle, who has come up from the country, where she faced a horror that took out the rest of her squad. Unable to secure a place with one of the elite schools in town who train and run companies of children, she casts her lot with Lockwood & Co., led by Anthony Lockwood, another child, in his independent agency. Lockwood & Co. is looked down upon by the other companies, because it lacks the guiding hand of an adult. And yet, they are surprisingly successful at their job – or they would be, if those ghosts would stop being so darned tricky. They are definitely the underdogs in this book, never quite making it, never quite breaking big…

The adults in this series are, at best, faithless or incompetent. The ones leading squads send their children in where they fear to tread – Lucy’s country squad was undermined by their alcoholic leader’s poor judgement. Adults in the police force fail to see what Lockwood explains. Worst of all are the clients who hire Lockwood and Co. They never seem to tell the truth and it is up to Lockwood and Lucy to reveal their secrets and vanquish the ghosts.

The screaming staircase of the title is their greatest case (in this book). Locked into the infamous Combe Carey Hall by their client, Lockwood, Lucy, and the irrepressible George – the third of their company – discover that, once again, their adult client has led them astray. And, once again, the kids are in far over their heads. They could not have expected what they find themselves facing, they could not have prepared for it; all they know is that, whatever they are expecting, what they will end up actually facing will be much worse.

I love these books: the children are fearless. Lucy is brave and capable; Lockwood, unflappable; George, imperturbable. The steampunk world is vivid and sensible: a cross between the world of Sherlock Holmes and those ghost hunting shows from the Travel Channel – although those guys would plotz if they ever came up against the ghosts Lockwood & Co. face. The three main characters keep their secrets – what did happen to Lucy in the country? what does Lockwood keep in that locked room he makes Lucy promise never to enter? why what makes George so… so… George…

The odds feel stacked against Lockwood & Co. at every turn. Ghosts are everywhere. Money is short. Clients lie to them. When things go wrong, the police blame them. The strange ghostly head in the jar that lives in the basement warns them against hubris.

And yet they survive. They take down the ghosts.

They win.

I like Lucy’s strength, her persistence, her swashbuckling style. Lockwood may be in charge of their company, but Lucy is the relatable one. She makes mistakes – but her mistakes come not from fear but from her inventiveness and risk tolerance. Lucy is not just the Watson to Lockwood’s Sherlock, she is a presence all her own. I like to think I have a little Lucy in me – appearing fearless despite her fear within – inventive, persistent, risk-tolerant. The truth is, I lack Lucy’s courage – if I were a child in this world, I doubt I’d be on the front lines. (I saw a scary shadow once – for a split second I couldn’t figure out what it was and almost peed my pants – and then realized it was my shadow, from a light behind me, at a weird angle.) And, while I wish I had her flair, her dash, her rapier wit and her swordplay skills, I know I’ve always been too much of a klutz to survive in her world.

I tried to get my nieces to read these books when they were younger. But they were going through a phase where they didn’t like scary things. Their other aunt’s boyfriend – while babysitting so my sisters could have an evening out together – insisted on showing them Ghostbusters. The zombie cabbie was too much and the kids were put off ghosts until they were too old to appreciate Lockwood & Co. You know, that age when you’re just old enough that you feel compelled to prove that you’re no longer a kid by rejecting children’s things outright. Maybe in another 10 years, they’ll have reached that age where they are actually grown-ups and stop caring about proving that they are. Although some of us never reach that age…

These books inspire me when I feel the odds are stacked against all that is good and right in this world. No matter how grim things look, Lockwood & Co. just keep going. These children walk into situations that, in our world, only Seal Team 6 could face. And, even then they couldn’t because Seal Team 6 are adults. And adults can’t see the ghosts to fight them.

So if you are feeling like you can’t go on, that things just couldn’t get worse, try a healthy dose of Lockwood & Co.

And, hey, Disney, when are you making the Lockwood & Co. movie? C’mon – so much better than yet another haunted mansion movie…