The Ruby in the Smoke
- 230
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
- Film 2006
- On screen
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Our view
“The Ruby in the Smoke” sets an intriguing mystery in a convincingly drawn Victorian world. Sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart looks into the death of her father, and Pullman lets the opium trade and the class divisions of the age into a book for young readers. The novel presumes, in the eyes of some readers, a good deal of knowledge about that trade and British colonial politics, and there are those who simply find it dull.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Ruby in the Smoke is a mystery novel for young adults by the English author Philip Pullman published in 1985. The story is set in the Victorian era, where 16-year-old Sally Lockhart discovers the reason of her father's mysterious death.
Reading order · Sally Lockhart
Full order & progress →- The Ruby in the SmokeThis book
7.57.5 / 10 - The Tin PrincessThe Tin Princess–Not ranked yet
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe Ruby in the SmokeIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 117 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 44% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Young adult average of 7.8. That is how 7.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 9 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 108 | 92% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Ruby in the Smoke for?
The Ruby in the Smoke sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 230 pages — shorter than 93% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 7.2 and 7.8, closest to this book.
