Miss Dark's Apparitions

As Molly Dark knows all too well, the problem with being able to see ghosts is that they never tell you what you wish to know. For instance, how a proper young lady like Miss Dark is supposed to support an impoverished family after her father has died a ruined man. Or how she is going to impersonate a missing princess long enough to steal a fortune out from under the collective noses of a whole family of royal monsters. Or exactly why the charming imposter claims to be none other than Grand Duke Vasily Nikolaevich, when he certainly isn’t a prince…or a vampire.

All her life, Molly Dark has been haunted by the restless dead—and now she’s finally able to do something about it. When the rich and monstrous take what they want, Miss Dark and her crew steal it back. At least, that’s the idea. In reality? In reality, the irritable inventor walks out, saying she doesn’t believe in ghosts and has important scientific research to conduct. The charming ex-vampire prince is only waiting for the perfect opportunity to stab Molly in the back.

Moscow in the springtime is an unhealthy place for a fugitive Grand Duke like Vasily Nikolaevich Romanov. But Molly Dark has been learning to trust the ex-vampire prince, who hasn't betrayed her quite as often as she expected.

Thief she may be, but Molly Dark has rules: she only ever steals to benefit others—never herself. This time, Molly only wants answers about the death of her father and the worrying persistence of his ghost—answers which almost certainly lie with his former business partner, Sir Humphrey Seton. Yet from the moment Miss Dark arrives on the doorstep of Sir Humphrey's towering Hong Kong mansion, she can't help sensing something rotten in the stifling summer air.

Now comfortably wealthy for the first time in her life, Miss Dark finds herself looking forward to her crew's newest assignment at the Paris Opera. Certainly, it's tough luck on the tenor whose grisly death has put an unceremonious halt to the new Wagner production. But helping Vasily to steal the Paris Opera in the guise of a squabbling married couple could be exactly the introduction to high society Molly has been itching for.