Twelve-year-old Eddie Dickens survives encounters with an escape artist in a runaway hearse's coffin, a hot air balloon bearing the escape artist's lovely assistant, a gas explosion, and a jewel thief on the run.

Reprint: Originally published: England : Faber and Faber, c2001. "First Scholastic paperback printing, January 2004"--T.p. verso. Sequel to: A house called Awful End. Sequel: Terrible Times.

Here we go again -- Boooom! -- To the very top! -- Sent from the skies -- Appealing to the peelers -- Making things better -- Rescue -- Grip of the enemy -- Escapes all around -- Sinking feeling -- Glossary.