The new Netflix series is based on a young adult supernatural thriller series of novels from the 2010s.

By James Hibbs

Published: Friday, 27 January 2023 at 12:00 am

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Netflix’s new fantasy series Lockwood & Co. follows a group of teen ghost hunters, working for the titular agency to find answers and unravel a terrifying mystery.

The series comes from writer/director Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) and stars young actors including Ruby Stokes, Cameron Chapman and Ali Hadji-Heshmati.

The series takes its inspiration from a series of young adult books, but what book series is this and how can you read the novels in order?

Read on for everything you need to know about the Lockwood & Co. book series.

Is Lockwood & Co. based on a book?

It is. Lockwood & Co. is based on the book series of the same name from author Jonathan Stroud, which comprises five novels, each of which was released a year after the other from 2013 to 2017.

Stroud has written a number of other non-fiction and young adult fiction books, including the four part Bartimaeus Sequence of novels and the most recently the The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne series, which released its second book last year.

According to Stroud, this first season of the Lockwood & Co. Netflix series will cover The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull, the first two of the books, across its eight episodes.

How many books are there in the Lockwood & Co. series?

Netflix

In total there are five books in the Lockwood and Co. series, all of which were released between 2013 and 2017. The first two books, called The Screaming Staircase and The Whispering Skull, have formed the basis for season 1 of the Netflix series.

Here’s the full list of Lockwood & Co. novels in order.

1. The Screaming Staircase (2013)
2. The Whispering Skull (2014)
3. The Hollow Boy (2015)
4. The Creeping Shadow (2016)
5. The Empty Grave (2017)

Stroud also released a short story in 2013 called The Dagger in The Desk. It was crafted interactively on the Guardian website, with readers influencing the story as it was released across six days.

Will the Netflix series adapt more of the books?

Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, but the show’s writer and director Joe Cornish has certainly expressed interest in adapting more of the books for future seasons.

Cornish told Empire that having only adapted the first two books, he believes there are “definitely a couple more seasons in the books”.

He continued: “One of the things I don’t like about episodic telly is when it doesn’t know how it’s going to end. You get that thing Lost had where it’s all promise and no delivery. But the story in the books is very well-plotted.

“Jonathan Stroud solidifies the world and thinks of clever ways to explore it the more the books go on. It really goes somewhere, and it does have an end. So yeah, we’d love to do more.”