Edinburgh 1827: it's a city populated by mad alchemists who treat Frankenstein as textbook rather than novel and by a criminal underclass prepared to treat with the darkest of powers. And one officer, from the recently formed Edinburgh City Police, must follow the trail of undead hounds, emptied graves, brutal murders and mob violence into the deepest and darkest corners of Edinburgh's underworld - both literal and magical - and back again to the highest reaches of elegant, intellectual Edinburgh society.