This charmingly spooky novel is set in Pelican River, southwest of Perth, in the 1920s. With all the charm and coziness of a BBC TV period drama, the story plays out in the aftermath of the First World War. It is centered around the eccentric and newly widowed Ruth, her butler Rutherford, and her aunt Julia, together with Ruth's inventor neighbor Gordon and his raft of hounds, and the elusive and sinister demon, Mr. Nor. Humor abounds and the characters explore the new ideas in science and physics of the era, as well as the development of science fiction itself, with cameos by the likes of Mr. H. G. Wells. This supernatural crime mystery also bears the traces of the effect of war on a nation and its people.