The Queen of Waste-Land fell first. The Mistress of Lakes and Streams soon after found death at the hands of her most trusted companion. Gloriana herself was captured, or nearly. When she fled into seclusion, the world fell into turmoil. Rifts splintered the wall and dark creatures, long constrained, burst forth from out their vaults, their caverns and crypts, to walk once more the pathways of the earth.
It is difficult to overestimate the disappearance of the queen of shadows. On the one hand, we mustn’t over react as did Lionel Purswit, who went weeping up and down Harrod’s Egyptian escalator for a week. Neither should we under react. It is not enough, for example, to have a quick peek around the ladies’ loo and then skive off to tea. The queen must be found and protected (or at least protected whether we ever actually succeed in finding the old girl again or no).
—from The HauntWalker’s Handbook, Preface
Like the Harry Potter series, Christopher Quinn is a series of tales, mysteries to be unraveled, that lead to a final conclusion.
In his first adventure, Christopher Quinn is introduced to a world beyond flesh and blood, a land of catacombs, phantoms, danger, ghostly elegance, and adventure. There is a delicate balance between the spirit and human worlds, and this balance was upset by the near-destruction of a figure of light known as Gloriana, who is now forced to rule in secret from dark and shadowed places. Christopher joins a band of young paranormal adventurers in his first quest, which is to discover the secret behind the Spirit Glass, a legendary and dangerous device that has resurfaced after centuries. They must find it before it can be used.
In future adventures, Christopher Quinn and his musketeer-like friends must unravel the many mysteries that hide the Faerie Queen from her kingdom. Some puzzles spring from the Queen’s own self-protection, some from her enemies seeking to destroy her, and yet others from groups of misguided subjects unknowingly exposing her to danger whilst attempting to restore her to her throne. All the while, Christopher travels through a Hallowe’en landscape of graveyards, ghosts, and folkloric beings.
At home, Christopher must navigate the unsteady waters of a quixotic family. His parents are paranormal investigators, unaware of Christopher’s treks into the spirit world. Their success in measuring spirit activity along haunted roads and in the unhallowed castles of Great Britain causes Christopher untold personal difficulties amongst the spirits that they reveal. Christopher’s identical sisters, too, have a part to play in the back-and-forth existence Christopher must endure as he seeks to unravel the riddles of the Faerie Queen and understand why, since 1919, hauntings have been on the rise. But he must hurry, for a paranormal adventurer loses his ability to see ghosts on his nineteenth birthday.
