Synopsis: Book of the Living & the Dead

Theodore Merle only has a few days left before he’s supposed to return to Edinburgh for his last year studying folklore and superstition at university, but before he can do that, he’s got to spend Bird Day with his Nan, looking for an elusive magpie that has been distinctly absent from the entire county for over twenty years.
For someone who grew up hearing stories of his ancestors ferrying the dead to the afterlife, Theo tries not to believe that there’s any connexion, but when you’ve lived next to a cemetery and a corpse road your entire life, you can’t help but wonder about it.
It’s only when the magpie finally shows that things take on horrific new meanings, and the tragic outcome of that day will haunt him for years to come. No matter how many worlds he crosses, how many spirits he meets, or things he learns, he may never get away from it, and he may never find his way out of the mysterious Fog of Gloame.