My name is Peter Grant, and I am a keeper of the secret flame -- whatever that is. Truth be told, there's a lot I still don't kw. My superior Nightingale, previously the last of England's wizardly governmental force, is trying to teach me proper schooling for a magician's apprentice. But even he doesn't have all the answers. Mostly I'm just a constable sworn to enforce the Queen s Peace, with the occasional help from some unusual friends and a well-placed fire blast. With the new year, I have three main objectives, a) pass the detective exam so I can officially become a DC, b) work out what the hell my relationship with Lesley Mai, an old friend from the force and w fellow apprentice, is supposed to be, and most importantly, c) get through the year without destroying a major landmark. Two out of three isn t bad, right? A mutilated body in Crawley means ather murderer is on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil, who may either be a common serial killer or an associate of the twisted magician kwn as the Faceless Man -- a man whose previous encounters I've barely survived. I've also got a case about a town planner going under a tube train and ather about a stolen grimoire. But then I get word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans, and inhabited by the truly desperate. If there's a connection to the Crawley case, I'll be entering some tricky waters of juristiction with the local river spirits. We have a prickly history, to say the least. Just the typical day for a magician constable.