It is 1933 and Percy Poole, the fourteen-year-old son of Detective Inspector Brian Poole, is in Birmingham's Snow Hill Station - trainspotting. Suddenly a train hurtles through the station at breakneck speed, with a sound like the buzzing of a huge swarm of bees. It is unlike any train Percy has ever seen, black and bullet-shaped, without cylinders, funnel or smoke. The appearance of the train coincides with a series of daring robberies of priceless art treasures; and when Inspector Poole goes missing, Percy and the ghost of his sister Julia have to follow the clues to solve the mystery of the Ghost Train and rescue his father from the ruthless criminal mastermind Count Frederick de Lille.