Thomas Radwinter's life seems settled and content as he juggles working as a free-lance solicitor, genealogist and house husband. However a new arrival in the family puts extra pressure on him as he has to balance looking after them and earning some money. A commission from an elderly gentleman to investigate a mysterious death at a little boarding school in 1931 seems intriguing and harmless; a haunted hotel he's asked to visit seems just to be over-imaginative guests and maybe a less than honest manager. However, during his investigations he has to confront a violent verger, an unbalanced conchologist and a very strange friend from the past...
Thomas took on his commissions, little realising when he began his investigation that he would be putting his life and that of a friend in serious danger... "I tried to work out what was going on, and what to do, and what might happen to us - trying my hardest to keep my thoughts well away from a terminal conclusion to events... "