Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

If you are interested in a slightly creepy, not scared out of your witts book this is great.  I thouroughly enjoy reading Jonathan Stroud's books and hope he continues with this as a series.  His writing is  different than most young adult writers and it makes his books entertaining and refreshing.  He doesn't follow the vampire, young love topics that most tend to do.  Instead he focuses on ghosts and demons for his books.  Awesome!

So this book follows a young girl, Lucey, who is able to Listen and Feel ghosts around her.  She comes from a large family of sisters that have special abilities as well, but nothing near to Lucey's talent.  After being trained and working for a local company a few years she encounters a strong ghost that kills her team.  She leaves home and makes it to the big city in search for a job.  She finds Lockwood & Co., a small company run by two young men, Lockwood and George.  The three of them team up and work together to exterminate problem ghosts.

You see, there is a Problem in Great Britain where an outbreak of ghosts has occurred.  The people have curfews and must be indoors before dark and have their houses protected by ghost lights, iron, and salt.  If you are touched by a ghost you turn blue, swell up, and die.  Only young people have the gift of seeing and hearing ghosts which is why all teams are made up of young kids overseen by adults.  Lockwood & Co. is the exeption.  After burning down a clients house and being sued, they must find a way to make the money in order to keep their business and find clients.  Of course there is a murder mystery behind the ghost from the house that burnt down and the team finds themselves in one of the most dangerous ghost houses ever in order to make enough money to pay their debts.