Constable & Toop

Constable & Toop by Gareth P Jones.  391 Pages


Sam Toop's father works as an undertaker which is appropriate since Sam himself is able to see and talk to ghosts.  Known as a "talker"  Sam often finds himself trying to help ghosts complete last requests so they can hear "the knock" and move on. 

At the same time, a ghost known as Lapsewood, a underling in the ghost Bureau, which regulates ghost-related matters.  He is tasked with finding a missing haunted house officer in London but finds a much larger problem.  Someone is exorcising the ghosts from these haunted houses allowing the Rot to set in, opening the door for a demonic force that's hungry for ghosts.  It will be up to Sam and Lapsewood as well as a whole bunch of interesting characters to save London. 

Cataloged as juvenile fiction, this book is very well written and is somewhat similar to Neil Gaiman's work.  If there is a fault, it is that Jones attempts to cover a lot of elements and that slows down the plot slightly.