Being able to detect black magic isn't all tea and crumpets and for Theodosia Throckmorton, it can be a decidedly tricky business! When Sticky Will drags Theo to a magic show featuring the Great Awi Bubu, she quickly senses there is more to the magician than he lets on, setting in motion a chain of events she never could have bargained for Meanwhile, back at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities, Henry is home for the spring holidays and makes an accidental discovery of an artifact that alchemists have been hunting for centuries. Soon, every black-cloaked occultist in London is trying to get their hands on it . . . Further complicating Theo's life is her grandmother, who is determined to give her ex-beau a proper funeral, and the head of the Chosen Keepers' order that Theo work with her-nemesis, Clive Fagenbush (who still smells of boiled cabbage and pickled onions). Toss in a disgruntled mut, Sticky Will's new found career goals, as well as further meddling by the Arcane Order of the Black Sun, and you have another rollicking adventure in which Theodosia and her friends are pursued in a race for one of the most guarded ancient secrets of all time.
