<DIV><BR>When a teenage girl disappears from a north London suburb a few days before Christmas, Detective Sergeant Effie Strongitharm puts would-be cult leader and reputed exorcist Nigel Tapster on her list of people to be questioned.<BR><BR>But when Effie witnesses Tapster's agonizing death during a church service, she needs to ask a different question: What holy terror spiked the sacraments with strychnine?<BR>With her mentor Detective Superintendent Mallard battling forced retirement, Effie turns to children's book writer Oliver Swithin to help her in a double quest —to bring the girl home and the murderer to justice in time for Christmas.<BR><BR>But is there a connection between the cases? And what does any of this have to do with another case of Shakespearean indecent exposure, a Scotland Yard commissioner's personal hygiene, a six-year-old Hell's Angel, Finsbury the Ferret's Guide to Being Absolutely Beastly, and the return of Underwood Tooth, the world's leading expert on being ignored?</div>