Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties."

Now thirteen years old, Tom Ward continues his apprenticeship with the Spook as they confront a dangerous bane who can control people's thoughts.

As the Spook's apprentice, Tom Ward must protect the country from the creatures of the dark. But now a dangerous ancient witch, Ordeen is about to rise. If Tom joins the army Tom's mother has mustered to confront Ordeen, the Spook will abandon him as his apprentice. What sacrifices will be made for the battle against the dark?

Apprentice Tom and the Spook for whom he works flee to Ireland, where a powerful witch has joined forces with the dark mages trying to call forth ancient powers to destroy Tom.

When witches steal Tom's inheritance and kidnap his relatives, Tom, the Spook, and Alice set out for Pendle Hill, a particularly dangerous district, in hopes of preventing the three witch clans from uniting to raise the Fiend, the Devil himself, thus bringing about an age of darkness.

Told from the point of view of Alice, best friend "and true love" to Tom, the spook's last apprentice. Alice is the most powerful witch in the world, and she ventures into the dark itself. Alice Dean's destiny is intertwined with Tom Ward's. But he's going to be the next Spook, and she's a witch, possibly the most powerful one the world has ever seen. To rid the world of its greatest evil, the Fiend, Alice will venture into the depths of the dark...

Tom Ward is now spook of the county, and with his apprentice, Jenny, he continues the fight against boggarts, witches, and terrifying new creatures of the dark. Together with the witch assassin, Grimalkin, Tom and Jenny lead an army into battle against a dangerous enemy���but it all goes catastrophically wrong. The situation seems hopeless until Alice���Tom���s lost love and a powerful witch���appears. But Alice had turned...

Ready to be presented to the last apprentice, Tom Ward, the spook's notebook contains instructions for vanquishing boggarts, witches, the unquiet dead, and other dark creatures and spirits.

A little princess is protected by her friend Curdie and her newly-discovered great-great-grandmother from the goblin miners who live in caves beneath the royal castle.