Book Four of Series One. Fresh from their adventures on Mercury, Nathanial Stone and his ward, Annabelle Somerset, are limping through the aether in a dilapidated flyer when they unwittingly stumble upon a heliograph station in solar orbit between Earth and Mars. Now in the sinister clutches of Dr Henry van den Bosch, a hulking nightmare of a man with a penchant for destroying those who cross him, Nathanial must race against time to prevent the station from falling into a massive aether vortex or risk van den Bosch's wrath. But unseen forces hold sway on Peregrine Station, and before the two can even settle in, an attempt is made on Nathanial's life. Annabelle investigates, and in doing so sets off a chain of events that could destroy the station before it ever reaches the vortex.

The year is 1950. Johnny Hardwood used to be an actor, but he got typecast playing detectives. So he quit the business and became what people thought he should be. Now he's got a big case involving a man named Mort Peters, who embezzled money from a major film studio and then faked his death, leaving a penniless widow behind. Johnny's tracked him to a little place south of Sacramento, in the middle of nowhere. On the outside, Herbie's Diner is just another run-down greasy spoon with bad coffee and overcooked fried chicken, but Johnny's about to learn that appearances are deceiving. Soon, the coffee's run out, and there's a bevy of killers, swindlers, femme fatales, and other types straight out of a private eye flick, looking to put him down for the dirt nap. Only this isn't the movies. The bullets are real, pain hurts, and the good guy doesn't necessarily beat the bad guys and get the girl. Johnny's got his back against the wall. He has to decide if he's really a...