People say Scotland is full of haunted houses.Scratch at the facts and you find most of these ghosts are imagined.Only one defies explanation, and it turns out she's a thief. DCI George Wiley has been keeping half an eye on the "Spectral Bandit" for six months now and has realised he's got a ghost problem. An escalating string of audacious thefts is creeping onto the newsfeeds and Wiley's bosses need him to catch the culprit. The only evidence he holds are short snatches of CCTV. And the solitary conclusion he has reached is that the spectral figure is a woman. He needs to provoke new lines of inquiry, so reluctantly, Wiley calls in the assistance of an old ally.Stumped by Wiley's new case, Gill McArdle is on a ghost hunt of his own. But he's not prioritising the detective's pleas for help. He's in Morayshire, where recent finds put him on the trail of the lost village of Culbin. Only after witnessing a wraithlike apparition, does Gill realise it's time to return Wiley's calls. Because as he unravels the mystery, he realises, this illusive phantom might be something quite tangible.