Poppy, Marcus, Dash, Dylan, and Azumi are trapped inside of Larkspur House, a sinister estate haunted by the ghosts of the orphaned children who have gone before, and the house is using their fears and secrets to pick them off one by one--because nobody gets out of the shadow house alive.

Inky's Great Escape follows a Houdini-esque octopus as he pulls his greatest disappearing act yet. Inky, worn out from his exciting life in the ocean, has retired to the aquarium. There he quietly regales his tankmate Blotchy with tales of his past adventures. Then Blotchy dares Inky to make one more daring escape: out of their tank . . . and the aquarium. Will Inky succeed?

Poppy Caldwell is an orphan who keeps seeing a figure standing behind her in the mirror at the group home where she lives, but she does not associate this ghost with the letter that mysteriously appears in her file, claiming to be from a long-lost aunt, and inviting her to Larkspur House--and she is just one of five children who find themselves gathered in this strange house with a deadly past, and apparently no intention of letting the children escape....

"An octopus is taken from his undersea home to live in an aquarium, but he soon tires of captive life"--