Complete Tales From The Rook

TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME!

The city of The Rook is a fantastical reimagining of London that never was: Elizabethan, Georgian, and Victorian flourishes jostle with steampunk contraptions and slow, steady magic. Its alleys hum with secrets, its rooftops bristle with goblins (probably), and every shadow might hide a story. Tread carefully-and guard your purse.

About the Series

Tales From The Rook explores this cobbled city through new troublemakers and returning favourites. This collection includes:

Just As You Like It: Or, If You Really Must (A Comedie)
No ghosts. A dance number. Popcorn. Shakespeare was never like this.

Bill Makepeace-bard of Blackheap Street-is in a pickle. His theatre's in ashes, there's no money to rebuild, and cockle kingpin Obadiah Dregmoor wants a slice of any future takings.

But from the ruins, a new opportunity begins to pop. Literally. For this is the age-not of reason-but of the corn that pops.

Witty, whimsical, and illustrated throughout, Just As You Like It launches the world of The Rook with daggers, doublets, dodgy deals, and more nods to Shakespeare than you can shake a quill at.

The Curse of the Missing Boot

The Booger Curse is back-grouchy, supernatural, and with a proven fatality rate. On the boggy wastes of Bogmoor Moor, the last English Booger heir has been scared to death by a spectral hound of considerable discourtesy.

Hope arrives from Texas, in the shape of Wyatt Booger-unaware of his bloodline, the curse, or ghost dogs in general. He's shipped across the sea to claim Booger Hall: crumbling, chimney-stuffed, and deeply cursed.

Enter Lysander Ravencrest, consulting detective of dramatic wardrobe, and Dr Gregory Bancroft, his dependable partner in crime-solving and breakfasting. While Ravencrest investigates a goblin-related insurance racket in The Rook, Bancroft accompanies the new heir to his deadly new home.

Murder Mary

Mary Mulligan is in trouble. She's sold the same boat to seventeen people (a personal best), only to discover it belongs to Uego Paramour-crime queenpin, cultural menace, and not known for her forgiveness.

Now Mary's fleeing through the alleys of The Rook with Paramour's top assassin, Charlie "Braces", close behind. Worse, she's just witnessed the demise of a woman floating past on a magical umbrella.

She hides in plain sight-as a nanny. It's going surprisingly well. The pay's decent. The children are hideous. A strange man named Albert is following her. The umbrella's stolen again. And in the nursery, for reasons best ignored, lives a penguin named Fishy Dave who sounds like a donkey.

Also-she keeps bursting into song. Against her will.

It's a chase. It's a heist. It's a nanny-led crime spree with jazz hands.
Hold on to your parasols-it's Superfloppylazywhineybratalocodocious!

A Christmas Carol for Tobias

Tobias Greengage-grumpy proprietor of Greengage's Goods-is about to receive spectral visitors. First through the ghostly revolving door: his late grandpappy Marley, long dead thanks to a ball hammer, a load-bearing wall, and a basic misunderstanding of physics.

Marley's ghost warns him: flogging everyday tat with wildly creative claims is causing chaos. (Top sellers include a saucepan-and-candle slow cooker* and an anti-noisy neighbour kit made of cotton wool.**) And worse-three more spirits are on the way.

Will Tobias change? Show feelings? Or try to sell the ghosts back their own chains as novelty scarves? It's Tobias. All bets are off.

A Christmas Carol for Tobias is the gloriously irreverent finale to Tales from The Rook.

No morals. No map. But three very angry ghosts.

* Put food in pan. Candle under pan. Light. Wait. Eait a bit more.
** Cotton wool in ears. Mind out for traffic.