If you're the type who enjoys a rip-roaring ride through the ages of history, with guns blazing, and steam engines and horse carriages slipping away into the mist, then Phillip Pullman's 'The Sally Lockhart' quartet is for you. Set in the Victorian era, it's very clear that the author has had a blast while writing this series. As he confesses on his official website, in each of his books, he deliberately selects a very common theme, and recasts it in a totally different, yet believable way. Victorian novels were full of exotic precious stones that carried a curse on them. Wilkie Collins' famous 'The Moonstone' made this into some kind of fashion.
In 'The Ruby in the Smoke', the first of the four books in this series, Pullman pulls off the ultimate 'cursed jewel' stunt. The ruby in question is from India, and the period it leaves the country is right after what the English call the Mutiny (and we call the First War of Independence). The heroine of the book, 16-year-old Sally Lockhart, is introduced to us just after she's been orphaned. Her mother is believed to have died protecting her when she was a baby, during the 'Mutiny'. And she's just lost her father, under mysterious circumstances, on a shipwreck in the South China Sea.
Left with the most depressing old aunt, Sally decides she wants answers to a number of questions. Where did her father's considerable wealth disappear? Who is the mysterious soldier whom her father had cryptically asked her to meet, in a letter written to her before his death?
With only her courage and wits about her, young Sally sets out to learn the truth…through the shady river-side slums of London; into the bleak English countryside. While we read, we learn about the early days when photography was just evolving, because Sally makes friends with a family that runs a studio. Eventually, she works for them and falls in love with the brother! Which is just as well, because whatever Sally's looking for, is also being sought by someone else… someone sinister and evil that she'll need a lot of help tackling. So join Sally and her motley crew of friends -Frederick the amateur photographer; his sister, Rosa, a budding actress; Jim the office boy at her father's old firm; Trembler, an ex-convict…!
Discover all about the sea pirates who operated in the Far East. About the dreadful opium trade, the dirty role the British played in it and the effects it had on people, from China to Britain. To figure out whether Sally Lockhart finally gets her inheritance, you will have to read the book.
Other books in the same series include “The Shadow in the North', the 'Tin Princess' and 'The Tiger in the Well'.
