A demon hound haunts Crab Cove, taking its victims as they come. When a mutilated corpse is found in the marshes, Detective Simon Grave rises to the challenge. Everything points to the hound, but it is quickly apparent that the body has been stabbed repeatedly, in a way that suggests serial killer Chester Clink also may be involved. Or maybe not.

Grave and his team, including his partner, Sergeant Barry Blunt, and androids Charlize and Smithers, who fancy themselves as Sherlock Holmes and Watson, follow clues that lead them from drone manufacturing plants, to the labyrinthine caves along the shore, to the abode of a strange Scotsman who plays his bagpipes on a bluff above the crime scene. As always in Crab Cove, one killing leads to another, further pressuring Grave to solve the mystery—fast. The year is 2053. Time to . . . Release the hounds! (And the drones.)