Bunting Faukes has a debt and no way to repay it - times are tough for grave robbers. But a way out is presented in the person of Atticus Wells, a sleuth with strange eyes that see into everything. Virtue Bland is alone in the world. Packed off to Brandenbrass to serve the household of her late father's employer, she has only her old pa's olfactologue to remember him by. But with it she can smell monsters.