The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

I don’t have much to say here right now, except that I think that this is going to be a short one. Seeing as I don’t have much to say about this book…. I don’t really know what to think of it actually. Strange strange book is what this is.

In a time full of of darkness and opium smoke – Sally Lockhart is just another young lady trying to make her way around London in the Victorian Age. Stuck with her horrid aunt, while trying to uncover the mystery of her father’s death – Sally seems to have lost all hope of discovering anything useful. But one morning, she receives a strange letter that is only the beginning of the scandal that her father had once tried to shed light on. Sally slowly strings together as people and clues fall in around her, but she can’t help but wonder… will she be able to figure it out before she meets the same fate as her father?

This was an interesting one – that’s for sure, but it was enjoyable all the same. I’m not really a big mystery fan but because this novel was short and it got to the point pretty quickly I didn’t mind it. I don’t really know what to say about it though, I mean – I liked it. Hmm, maybe what I’m trying to say is that it was good but there was just something that was missing. I liked how it didn’t go too in depth with things if you know what I mean, but the writing or the story itself didn’t make you feel any emotions, and that’s what I really try and look at to see the quality of a story. Even if one of the main characters were going to get caught, or somebody was beaten up by the bad guy… it was still hard to feel worried about them.

In a sense, the plot line was great, and of course – I loved the setting, Old England is one of my favorite settings for books. Another thing that I liked about this book was that it wasn’t childish at all, drugs played a main part in it and curse words were actually in the dialogue (I just love reading a good curse word). This series isn’t one of Pullman’s stronger ones, I mean I think that I liked The Golden Compass much more than this one, but it was still good. Which is why I will give it a well deserved 3 out of 5.

 

There are three other books in the series, so maybe it will get better. I own the second one so as soon as I get to reading that it should be up here… anyways – website as per usual. http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=72

Chow Mr. Cow,

MRR