Vulpe Tempest, thwarted in love and disappointed in her hopes to be an artist, has been left in charge of her uncle’s detective agency for the summer. Against the backdrop of a series of murders in which the victims are all mermaids, she takes on what appears to be the simple case of a missing person. To solve the mystery, she must descend into the dark underworld of the City of Light, its rivalries and its disconcerting and fantastical stories.  Part detective novel, part ghost story, here the magical and the real are almost indistinguishable. Everything is visible and nothing is as it seems, and Vulpe brings both tenderness and tenacity to the challenges she must face. This intricately woven tale invites us into a world where instinct delivers as many insights as intellect; where the light is fractured, shattering certainties only to illuminate brilliant hunches, before directing our attention elsewhere, like magic.