SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025

After one misadventure too many, 11-year-old serial miscreant Conn is sent home from school. Picked up by his professor aunt Doireann, she takes him to her office in UCD’s National Folklore Collection on the way home. Surrounded by old books and artefacts, it’s only a matter of time before Conn puts a foot wrong .

After one misadventure too many, 11-year-old serial miscreant Conn is sent home from school. Picked up by his professor aunt Doireann, she takes him to her office in UCD’s National Folklore Collection on the way home. Surrounded by old books and artefacts, it’s only a matter of time before Conn puts a foot wrong .

Intrigued by a case marked ‘hazardous’, he opens it to reveal the ancient skull of the Abhartach, an undead sorcerer of terrible might. In doing so, he releases the monster, and a terrifying chase through the university ensues, as the bodiless sorcerer hunts Conn through every piece of technology it can find. Can Conn defeat the Abhartach before it regains its true power?