The detective business is going swell for Tedrick 'Stumpy' Gritswell. With more cases than he can shake a keel-stick at, he and his assist-kicks Bill and Reginald are up to their noggins in work. That changes when he is hired by Barnes to investigate the bizarre death of a powerful and influential figure. His probing sweeps him into the heart of a clandestine society, revealing a world spoken of only in whispers. Hidden dangers and sinister characters shatter Tedrick's world, thrusting him closer and closer to the black bowels of the Abyss.

Living on Borobo Reef is tough, especially if you're a spud who's down on his luck. Ex-detective Tedrick Gritswell just wants to be left alone, but a visit from a drop-dead gorgeous dame coupled sees him take up the case of a missing VIP. With all the heavies, whores, wise-guys and simpletons swimming about, it gets more than dangerous, it gets downright deadly.

She lolled her head and strained her eyes to glimpse the knife jammed in her shoulder. She tugged at it, but quickly gave up on that, stifling a cry. It wouldn't have helped, anyway. Blood trickled underneath her jerkin, making her chest sticky. More time. They needed more time. Rescued from peril, street-rats Tyrone and Iris are offered a new life, invisible and scholarly, among the enigmatic Brotherhood of the Vigils. Iris's history fuels her resentment for the restraints imposed upon her. Irreconcilable values drive a wedge between them until the pair are thrust back together to face Captain Mavvis and his crew, a band of centuries-old ghouls. Seeking the magic of an ancient civilisation to undo his curse, Mavvis's actions will destroy a fundamental balance that would drag the world into chaos. In a series of painful lessons, Iris must learn from the consequences of her actions. Over 200,000 words of adventure, intrigue and romance.

True friends stick with you through the hard times, even if you've gone and kidnapped the son of a psychopathic monster. With Ava in the clutches of Syd Carbone, what else was Tedrick supposed to do? Now he must race to get to the source of the Emerald Algae before every other spud in the ocean gets their filthy mitts on it. Nothing can stand in his way. Except for the bureaucrats at Town Hall, maybe. Hordes of savage squid are a hindrance, and the police aren't exactly friendly for some reason. Buff! Sometimes a spud can't catch a break, but Tedrick will get to the bottom of it, come hell or high water.

The path of science is convoluted, as I discovered during the first Winter of my tenure with the Professor. There are people, upon whom we must rely, that would prefer to see our research into the paranormal abandoned. Politics and preconceptions are subtle barriers to the truth, more so than the elusive spirits we chase. The investigation at the Beaumaris House revealed to me a secret; the biggest threat to our scientific endeavours did not lie in old, creaky houses but in old, creaky minds.

Necessity forces us all to make uncomfortable choices. The Professor, operating in such a fringe discipline as Paranormology, bore a greater burden than most. Every decision held the potential to bring his work, and the budding field, into disrepute. Our investigation at Hampton Court taught me that there is more to ghost hunting than simply recording and observing; a proper grasp of politics is just as necessary as the ability to read a thermometer.

The out-of-doors haunting at Devon Cove presented its own unique problems, yet the cliff-tops, the wind and rain and lightning, and even the hostile townsfolk, all posed less of a problem than the conflict of the tormented ghost we hunted. Her anguish reminded us - the Professor, Milena, Felix and I - of the sobering reality that ghosts were once people. This is the seventh book in the Paranormology Series.