Second in the Sally Lockhart series, Phillip Pullman's YA victorian mysteries. In this book Sally is 22 -- six years older than in the first book -- and has her own financial business. She sets off to solve the mystery of the failure of a shipping company and is pulled into a much larger and much more dangerous conspiracy.

I was impressed with nearly everything about the first book (the pacing, the setting, the characters), but I had concerns about Sally Lockhart herself being too modern and too perfect a character for the setting. Pullman has fixed that problem in this book, drawing Sally in much better detail, giving her realistic flaws and significant challenges to overcome simply for being independent and female in Victorian London. Given Pullman's significant talents for scene-setting, character building and pacing, I'm pleased that Sally has been so improved in this book.

The Shadow in the North is better than the first in the series; the plot is more complex and detailed, the characters are older and have more adult problems, and the tragic ending may be difficult to take even for adults (I note a number of goodreads reviewers are quite miffed about it). I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.