Purple rainbows, a mysterious crypt, and pots of gold . . .

Things are not going well for Amanda and the secret detective school. A priceless artifact has disappeared, a dangerous hacker is manipulating matter, and zombies are being seen all over the Lake District.

Then the real trouble starts. When her cousins go missing and her friend Clive is kidnapped, Amanda is forced to turn to someone she'd rather not deal with: her old boyfriend Scapulus Holmes. But then he vanishes too. Now's she's sure that arch-villain Blixus Moriarty is involved . . . or is he?

What does a dusty old secret have to do with peacocks?

Everything, as it turns out. When Amanda is knocked off her skateboard by a rare all-blue peacock, she learns that the species harbors a vital secret she must race to uncover. But before she can unravel the mystery, a startling archaeological discovery turns all of Britain against the detectives and threatens their very existence.

As old enemies gather strength and new adversaries emerge, Amanda finds herself dealing with hysterical teachers, a disappearing mentor, a mysterious poisoner, and a would-be magician. With so...

It only takes a moment to spill a secret.

The detectives have managed to keep Legatum Continuatum's secrets safe for more than a hundred years, but that could soon change. Amanda and her friends have discovered that the red spiders of Ambleside possess a talent that could expose everything.

Unfortunately, Amanda's new stepfather knows about them too, and his plans are deadly. The kids try to get to the spiders first, but their attempt to save them just complicates matters. Then Amanda disappears and it falls to her friends to save the day. If they...

What is Professor Scribbish hiding?

Amanda and her friends have known about the mysterious Detective's Bible for some time. But what they never dreamed was that old Lovelace Earful, Legatum's founder and the author of the precious book, had much more up his sleeve than that.

Now a strange pair of gold-rimmed spectacles he designed has fallen into the hands of the Moriarty brothers. But the glasses have been stolen, and it falls to Amanda to figure out where they are and get them back before . . . what? All she knows is that they're powerful and the bad guys want them....