Ruby in the Smoke: a Sally Lockhart mystery by Philip Pullman

"This book will teach your children the joys of opium. 

No, really." 

Oscar Wilde on The Ruby in the Smoke*

The firstborn of the Sally Lockhart series - you know, the one that Pullman wrote before the exquisite His Dark Materials trilogy - is a fast-paced Victorian era tale of secrets, mystery, greed, murder and lots, lots of drugs. Oh yes.

Sally, 16, recently lost her father and as she unravels the mystery of his death she discovers that she herself is in danger by a terrifying, ruthless woman - who is very much an older, more spiteful version of Mrs Coulter from Northern Lights (it seems they fascinate Pullman!). 

Sally herself though is not very much like Lyra from the same book, except the fact that they're both young girls kicking ass. She is more introverted and reserved, yet favours very un-lady-like hobbies such as shooting guns or being a part-time manager and accountant (oh, and smoking opium, once or twice). I literally loved her character because she always had this stoic facade while doing all sorts of peculiar or dangerous of things. The narrator's sarcastic, English voice - naturally in the Victorian era spirit - sketched the characters wonderfully for me. Philip knows his way around words.

My only problem with Pullman is the object plot device: what he did with the aletheometer and the subtle knife in HDM, he does here with the ruby. A certain object advances most of the plot, not characters. Which, of course, is totally OK if you have a good story to tell, and my spider sense tells me Pullman always does.

The Ruby in the Smoke recreates the historical period charmingly, all in balanced YA proportions, and offers for a quick, enjoyable read. If you love it, you can see Sally return, less lost and more confident, in the future mysteries.

Have you read Ruby? Share your thoughts!

* The jokes about drugs are jokes indeed, but this is irrelevant to the number of people getting high in this book. Pullman is naturally talented in making children's books very adult - my thanks to him!

You can buy Ruby in the Smoke here.