Atticus Crayle isn't your average teenage genius. He lives alone in the council house he officially shares with his mum and is extremely self-sufficient. He has built a chemistry lab in his attic and spends his weekends secretly testing homemade chemicals and explosives. His only friend is Gemma, who blows up dirt with him every Saturday. She has secrets of her own. Her uncle Damon is a spy and she plans to be one too. Atticus is on holiday with Gemma and Damon when he finds himself under attack by gunmen and caught up in a kidnapping plot involving spies, trained killers and organised crime. Mixed up in a dangerous new world where he might just belong, Atticus has never had a Christmas holiday like it.