Lockwood & Co. - Das Flammende Phantom

Lockwood & Co im 4. Abenteuer, der Spaß geht weiter und Lucy ist endlich wieder mit im Team. Zumindest als freie Geisterjägerin, denn Lucy hat sich selbstständig gemacht. Durch die Vorhersage eines Geistes, der ihr anvertraut hat, sie sei für Lockwoods Tod verantwortlich, hat sie das Haus in der Portland Row 35 verlassen.
Nun müssen sie ein großes Abenteuer gemeinsam bewältigen. Ein kleine Ort in England wird von mehreren Geistern heimgesucht und Lockwood & Co müssen ihr ganzes Können und Wissen einsetzen, um diese geballte Kraft an seelenlosen Wesen zu bannen.

Jonathan Stroud hat wieder mal ein amüsantes und außerordentlich spannendes Abenteuer geschrieben, nicht nur für Jugendliche. Der Spaß steht im Vordergrund und als Leser ist man mitten drin in der Geisterjagd. Das ruft nach einem 5. Teil.

You may ask why I choose to mention friendship as the first thing. That's why. Lockwood & Co is a great saga about ghosts and young agents in their fight against the evil and how brave they are in this fight. But first and above it is a story about friendship. And this is the main theme I will come back to this for all the books Stroud will gift us.
But to this story: Lucy has left Lockwood & Co to be a freelancer. Not because she has a problem with Holly like all assume. That's not true (not very). It's because of the Hollow Boy in their last adventure who gave her a little outlook into the future where Lockwood will die because of her. But now Lockwood comes to her for help and Lucy can't say no. And then she needs help and Lockwood, George and Holly would never say no. Mix in it the interference of the two most powerful agencys, the theft of the skull, deadly criminals and a cursed city with a creeping shadow and you have something that will take away your breath and steal your time and you will love it.

What I very, very much like is the development of the youth. There is Lucy, of course, a young girl who now has not only to fight with ghosts but with emotions too. And Lockwood who can't give a second thougt about the dangers without Lily, and there's George, good old George, unkempt and fat and really brilliant and Holly, nice and tidy and if you really need her a fighting hellcat. I do so like all the ideas of Stroud about this agency and blimey, he gave us a cliffhanger like a bomb and I expect a great spectacle of the next book.