"Preparing you for an education you'll never forget, this introduction to The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of homicidal arts, follows students as they prepare for graduation by getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live"--

1869. While on a much-needed respite with her husband Sam in Nottinghamshire, undertaker Violet Harper is summoned to Welbeck Abbey by the Fifth Duke of Portland to prepare a body. His Grace is known as the "mad duke," and Violet has more than an inkling of why when she arrives at the grand estate and discovers that the corpse in question is that of the duke's favorite raven, Aristotle. Many of the duke's servants believe a dead raven is a harbinger...

Odd Thomas, a short order cook at the Pico Mundo Grill, keeps his ability to speak with ghosts a secret from all but his girlfriend, Stormy, and the local police chief who he occasionally helps solve or prevent crime, but his unusual talent leads him and his fellow citizens into big trouble when a strange man comes to town followed by a horde of borachs--ghostly harbingers of mayhem.