Novel: The Ruby in the Smoke

Overview
Philip Pullman introduces Sally Lockhart, a fierce-minded and resourceful teenager, in a richly imagined Victorian London teeming with social contrasts and hidden dangers. Left recently orphaned, Sally is both impoverished and intellectually formidable; she runs a small business that manufactures and sells a financial instrument she invented, and she faces a world that expects women of her class to be passive rather than enterprising. The narrative thrust is set when a mysterious death in her family and the appearance of a priceless gem draw her into a perilous investigation.
The central object of danger is a ruby with a dark provenance and an uncanny ability to attract violence and obsession. As Sally follows threads linking the jewel to a murdered relative, she uncovers a web of criminality that reaches from London's opium dens to the drawing rooms of the upper classes. The novel balances the immediacy of a detective story with a broader curiosity about power, exploitation, and the precarious place of a self-reliant woman in a rigid society.
Pullman's prose combines period detail with brisk plotting; the atmosphere of foggy streets, shadowed warehouses, and gaslit parlors creates both mood and motive. While the suspense is sustained through sudden threats and narrow escapes, the book also centers on Sally's intelligence, courage, and moral clarity, which transform a conventional mystery into an exploration of social and personal integrity.

Plot
The story begins with the death of Sally's father, a man whose past connections and financial dealings leave unanswered questions; soon after, an uncle dies under suspicious circumstances. Sally receives only fragments of explanation, including the odd involvement of a mysterious ruby and cryptic warnings. Driven by a mix of grief, curiosity, and a streak of stubborn righteousness, she resolves to discover the truth rather than accept tidy explanations offered by those in authority.
Her investigation brings her into partnership with a handful of allies: Jim Taylor, a working-class young man with loyalty and courage; Frederick Garland, a genial American sailor with combat instincts; and a few other figures who owe debts or favors and are willing to stand with her. Together they trace the ruby through a sequence of dangerous encounters, smugglers, corrupt businessmen, and a sinister doctor whose experiments and obsessions have devastating effects. Each clue tightens the pattern of conspiracy and reveals the ruthlessness of those who will kill to possess the gem or to protect secrets tied to imperial commerce and a cruel foreign trade.
The climax is tense and inventive, forcing Sally to deploy both brains and nerve in order to outwit adversaries and rescue those imperiled by greed and violence. The resolution brings justice of a sort, but not without cost; the final arrangement reconfigures relationships and leaves Sally more independent and self-aware. The ending balances closure of the central mystery with the sense that Sally's life has shifted irrevocably, opening the door to further adventures and to a broader moral fight.

Characters and Themes
Sally herself is the story's beating heart: intelligent, skeptical of easy authority, and committed to practical action. Pullman surrounds her with characters who illuminate Victorian hierarchies, loyal working-class friends who provide muscle and heart, hypocritical elites who protect their interests, and outsiders who show both cruelty and humanity. The ruby functions as symbol and catalyst, embodying colonial exploitation, obsessive desire, and the way wealth can corrupt ordinary lives.
Themes of independence, gender and class permeate the narrative; Sally's refusal to be sidelined challenges social expectations, while the plot interrogates the human cost of empire and commerce. Pullman's novel combines the pleasures of a traditional mystery with social critique and a spirited heroine, creating a compelling introduction to a series that continues to test moral courage against entrenched power.