The Downward Spiral: Lock and Key, Book 2
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Downward Spiral is the second book in the Lock and Key series by Ridley Pearson, author of Peter and the Starcatchers and The Kingdom Keepers series. Lock and Key features a modern-day high school-age Sherlock Holmes and his eventual enemy, James Moriarty (according to the original series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Here, Sherlock and James are roommates at Baskerville Academy in New England, and James' younger sister, Moira, narrates. The violence amps up from the tamer first book, The Initiation. Two adults are murdered: One is hit with a rock, another by a truck. Kids ages 12 to 14 are kidnaped, drugged, and tied up. One young teen is beaten up badly by a group of men. A girl nearly drowns in a bath after being drugged. Men are injured by nunchaku, knives, and a bola. Sailing in a squall nearly leads to drowning. There's also much talk about the recent death of James and Moira's father from foul play and their mother's disappearance when they were young. Moira is brave and resilient in the face of danger. While her brother, James, is also after the truth about their father, he's tempted and corrupted by the power given to him.
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What's the Story?
In THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL, Sherlock sneaks into the Moriartys' Boston mansion over holiday break to help Moira and James Moriarty figure out the riddle their father left in his study before he died: "When all that's left is right." They think that clue, and the key he left Moira in the fireplace ashes, leads to the answers to all the Moriarty family secrets, including who may have wanted to kill Mr. Moriarty. Little do they know how many secrets this family has. And the more they find -- starting with a hidden room off the study and Mr. Moriarty's journal written in ancient Greek -- the deeper they go into this mysterious realm of secret societies and desperate plays for power. James, deemed the new head of the Scowerers society after his father's death, is the first to get caught in the power struggle when a simple "favor" to spy on a classmate's father leads to the man's not-so-accidental death.
Is It Any Good?
This sequel builds in many layers of secrets and ciphers to keep the mystery series nearly as sharp and quick as young Sherlock himself, though sometimes at the expense of character depth. It's almost hard to count all the mysteries in play at the same time: the journal, the mother's disappearance, the father's death, the gold bars and paintings in the hidden room, the two secret societies and their hierarchies and power struggles, the spying, the deaths, the disappearance of the necklace ... it keeps going. It's hard to always tell which lead the story will follow next and what new layer of mystery it will reveal, but like most Sherlock-inspired stories, all that guesswork is a big part of the thrill.
The paths of two Moriarty siblings diverge here: James takes the moody tragic path; Moira the more hopeful one that puts trust in the right people, like Sherlock. James' big change in The Downward Spiral needed more time on the page. Without a closer look at his psyche, he downward-spirals into a one-note villain who just wants power far too quickly. And Moira, as the sometimes narrator, needs time to process how closely her family is tied to all kinds of bad things. Instead, we see her pine over Sherlock and get jealous when other girls are around him. It sells her short as a strong female character. Let's hope that in Book 3 author Ridley Pearson brings us as close to these characters as he does to the myriad mysteries in their lives.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the differences between James and Moira in The Downward Spiral. Do you think if Moira were tempted with the same power James is, she would be going down the same dark path?
What happens to Sherlock and James' relationship by the end of the book? What ties them together? What makes cooperation harder for both of them?
Will you read the next in the series? What do you think will happen to James? Moira? Sherlock?
Book Details
- Author: Ridley Pearson
- Genre: Mystery
- Topics: Adventures, Book Characters, Brothers and Sisters, High School, Middle School
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: October 10, 2017
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 432
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 22, 2018
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