Christmas is coming, and yet surely Mr Crabbit—yes, he who rules over the petty cash at Mr Bruff's law practice—cannot be so distracted by its approach that he fails to berate Gooseberry for presenting him with a water-stained receipt. Something is clearly amiss, and the Victorian boy detective vows to find out what.Join Octavius (AKA Gooseberry, AKA Octopus) and his ragtag bunch of friends as they investigate a shadowy spiritualist medium recently arrived from Massachusetts, only to discover that somebody desperately wants her dead.