Pages

Friday, February 16, 2007

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

The Ruby in the Smoke is a Young Adult Mystery novel set in Victorian England. It is also the basis for a Masterpiece Theatre movie a couple of weeks ago starting Billie Piper (Doctor Who) as the young heroine, Sally Lockhart. I didn't want to watch the movie until after I had read the novel so I ordered it from the library [the Kewaunee library is small (a lot smaller than Milwaukee, but bigger than Union City) so I often order a lot of the books I want to read or movies I want to watch from other libraries through the interlibrary loan system].

I thought this book was very entertaining and had one of the best opening lines ever . . . "Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man." Sally spends the book trying to solve the mystery of her father's murder and the secret's of her childhood. The book deals with a mysterious ruby as well as the opium trade. I know I'm getting old when I get disturbed about a teenage book involving the opium trade! :-) I really liked this book and hope to read the next three in the series.

Has anyone else read any Philip Pullman books? I see that he is the author of The Golden Compass, which is a fantasy movie coming out in December with Nicole Kidman in it. Is that a good book?

No comments:

Post a Comment