Simon Canderous, dorky newbie at the un­der­fund­ed, secretive Department of Ex­tra­or­di­nary Affairs in New York City, in­ves­ti­gates the death of a beautiful ghost and the apparently re­spectable cultists at the Sectarian Defense League. He has the gift (or curse) of psy­chom­e­try: when he touches something, he can divine its history.

This book wobbles between not very black comedy and straight urban fantasy, and doesn’t really succeed as either.