Lockwood & Co. #4: The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

My name is Lucy, and I came to Lockwood for help after having assisted him with the capture of the ghost of a nasty, cannibalistic murderer. The Sources of ghosts are supposed to be destroyed, but I suspected some of them weren't being burned properly. I was certain after the talking skull, a level 3 spirit, was stolen from my apartment. I know the skull is annoying, insulting, and moody, but I need him. No one in England can Listen as well as me, but hearing the spirits can still put me in dangerous situations. The skull has saved me more than once, and he's helped me locate Sources. Now he's gone. Someone is buying up the most powerful Sources around, but I don't know why. So now I'm with Lockwood, George, and Holly again to solve the mystery. What we found out will shock you!

The books in this series make awesome reads for the Halloween season! If you haven't read any of them, what are you waiting for?! The author is able to create very eerie descriptions of the characters' encounters with ghosts. He does this through soft noises, shadowy images, dropping temperatures, and the characters' spooky feelings. It helps that these events happen at night, in dark places, and the ghost-touch is deadly. Lucy is able to hear the movements and voices of ghosts which adds to the creepiness. Lucy left the company in the third book, so working with the other characters again creates awkward situations. The fact that Sources are not being destroyed properly is a wonderful twist to the series, but the Creeping Shadow doesn't enter the plot until later in the book. The two issues eventually come together in a small, remote town called Aldbury Castle to create a very interesting problem. Lockwood has  been at odds with the two largest ghost-hunting agencies in London, and stunning secrets are revealed about them when Lockwood and Co. rid the town of its ghost problem. Actually, the Problem is what the characters call the outbreak of ghosts that began about fifty years earlier. A surprise is revealed in the last chapter, although I had some suspicions about it already. Again, you need to read this series if you haven't tried it yet.