The Ruby In The Smoke - Philip Pullman

Quite honestly I am not sure what to make of this book. I didn’t completely adore it but I didn’t hate it either. I have read Philip Pullman books before in the form of the Northern Lights trilogy but I don’t think I really let that colour my opinion of the first Sally Lockhart book.


I found this book somewhat difficult to get in to. It seemed to be pretty slow in it’s pacing and at times was almost dragging along. I found myself looking at the page numbers and wondering how I had only advanced maybe 1 or 2 even though it seemed to be many more. That said the last couple of chapters really picked up and I found myself getting more drawn in to the story.

I didn’t really find the characters to be that easy to relate to. I quite liked Adelaide – the young girl – and Jim. The scenes following Adelaide being taken off by Mrs Holland were some of the most interesting to me. I found myself desperately wanting Adelaide to be able to go back with them and to be ok. I hope that Adelaide’s story is not forgotten in the three later books in the series.

I did like that Sally was perhaps an unconventional female from the time period that the book is set in. Her talents in some areas such as bookkeeping and shooting but her lack of skill in things such as literature make her different from the females that do little more than look pretty and faint but it doesn’t exactly make her interesting either. I suppose I was just waiting for her to do something. Maybe part of me was expecting her to be another Lyra from the Northern Lights.

I wasn’t overly surprised by the revelation that Matthew Lockhart was not Sally’s biological father. This was something that I sensed very early in the book and it was just a waiting game for it to be revealed really. I was a little surprised by who her biological father was – I had been expecting it to be the maharajah.

I feel almost a little disappointed that I was not left shocked by the book. Everything seemed laid out from the beginning and it was just a case of waiting for things to unfold in an almost ‘by numbers’ scenario.

I have the remaining books in the series waiting for me to read but there is something about the Ruby in the Smoke that is not exactly making me rush to read them. I will do eventually because I don’t like having books I have bought lying forever unread but their position on the book pile is creeping lower down. Maybe if the second one is more enthralling the others will move up.