Constable & Toop by Gareth P. Jones

Sam is a young boy who is able to talk to ghosts. Clara is a young girl with an old ghost living in her house. And Lapsewood is a ghost whose new job is to check up on other ghosts living in buildings throughout London. Their stories carry them on separate paths, but Black Rot becomes a problem they all share. Ghosts that have been exorcised from haunted homes will summon something evil from beyond, and the "survival" of all ghosts is in danger. To complicate things, Sam's uncle shows up, and he's wanted by the police for killing an officer. Sam discovers in the worst way that this is not the first time he's committed murder.

The setting of the book changes each chapter as it follows the events surrounding the characters I mentioned before. Although Sam appears to be the main character, the main plot centers around Lapsewood. The first half of the book sounds like a "normal" story involving ghost problems, but the uncle becomes a larger character in the second half. The plot becomes much more ominous and evil at that point. I appreciated the author's imagination as he created a story about ghost characters that wasn't s cutesy.