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.
'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 an ancient magic 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.
The case at Nadderwater Rise Boilermakers left an enduring impression upon me. The Professor and I witnessed first-hand how machines can turn on their masters. When directed by a malevolent force, the results were utterly brutal.
As if horrid conditions are not enough, the culture of harassment ingrained into the workers only make it worse. Their daily lives are already drenched in danger, subject to severe injury without notice, yet they persist in tormenting each other, to their peril.
This is the eighth book in the Paranormology Series.
Crime doesn't take a holiday, even during the worst of storms.
As a favour to Captain Barnes, Tedrick 'Stumpy' Gritswell takes on a case regarding a barren stretch of land. Sounds simple enough and the clams are decent. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, apart from a senseless murder, there's that. And vicious barracudas. And crazy dames, psychopathic upstarts, corrupt police, vengeful Old Salts and a dangerous algae that could spell the end of civilisation.
All things considered, it's just another tide on Borobo Reef.
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.
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, like any decent octopus deserves, but a visit from a drop-dead gorgeous dame coupled with a whole lot of pestering from an annoying cuttlefish sees him take up the case of a missing VIP.
The going is tough. Tommy Two-Tone is in the picture, and you know that can't be good, right? With all the heavies, whores, wise-guys and simpletons swimming about, it gets more than dangerous, it gets downright deadly.
'It's not carrying the world on your shoulders that does it, because that's what we were bloody well built for. It's the little things that wear you down and grind you to dust. That statue of Atlas won't get squashed, it'll have little bits chipped off it. It'll have the rain wear it down. The acid in the bird poop will rough up the surface. It'll have a crack that forms up its butt that'll grow bigger until the bugger splits wide open!'
Set in a typical Melbourne setting, Henry's story is an allegorical tale of depression and his battle to hold up the expectations of others as he crumbles under their demands.
What we cannot see can, indeed, hurt us. Neither forgotten foes nor latent fears lose potency if ignored. A haunting, so perfectly reliable and unwavering, fed the Professor's obsession to his detriment. His health deteriorated. So did our relationship. During the darkest time of our investigations, from the most unexpected quarter, an old friend appears to leave her mark on our lives.
This is the sixth book in the Paranormology Series.
Beyond the familiar and the safe lies the unknown, an infinite land of fear, doubt and confusion. An unforgiving town is no place to test wild emotions, yet that is exactly how I came to discover just how little I knew about my own thoughts and feelings. In Exeter, bustling and impersonal, my relationship with the Professor was strained under the weight of a malevolent entity and mysterious gypsy.
This is the fifth book in the Paranormology Series.
From the events this past autumn, I am compelled to relate my perilous trial. The supposition that darkness is merely the absence of light is both popular and false, as those who practise the occult can affirm.
In the dark cellar of number thirteen Jolimont Street, a house the Professor had assumed benign, I unwittingly brought forth an ancient evil that first threatened our reputations, then our souls.
This is the fourth book in the Paranormology Series.
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.
This is the third book of the Paranormology series.
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.
This is the second book in the Paranormology series.
