They say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead agree.
One night, Silas Umber's father Amos doesn’t come home from work.
Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere mortician but an
Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace to the dead trapped in the
Shadowlands, the states of limbo binding spirits to earth. With Amos
gone, Silas and his mother have no choice but to return to Lichport, the crumbling seaside town where Silas was born, and move in with Amos’s
brother, Charles.
Even as Silas eagerly explores his father’s
town and its many abandoned streets and overgrown cemeteries, he grows
increasingly wary of his uncle. There is something not quite right going on in Charles Umber’s ornate, museum-like house — something, Silas is
sure, that is connected to his father’s disappearance. When Silas’s
search leads him to his father’s old office, he comes across a powerful
artifact: the Death Watch, a four hundred year old Hadean clock that
allows the owner to see the dead.
Death Watch in hand, Silas
begins to unearth Lichport’s secret history — and discovers that he has
taken on his father’s mantle as Lichport’s Undertaker. Now, Silas must
embark on a dangerous path into the Shadowlands to embrace his destiny
and discover the truth about his father — no matter the cost.