PHANTOM SIGNALS
Hidden London. Ancient Magic. Modern Britain.
London's oldest firewall is failing
Ancient systems have protected London for centuries. Now the technical debt is finally coming due.
Stephen Harris didn't apply for this job. He's an IT contractor. He fixes broken systems.
He never expected London to be one of them. He'd really rather somebody else fixed it.
Kindle eBook available to pre-order now. Paperback and Kindle Unlimited available from 24 August 2026
MEET STEPHEN HARRIS
Some problems were never meant for the help desk.
Stephen Harris solves IT problems for a living.
Password resets. Network outages. Users who insist they haven't changed anything.
The impossible was never supposed to be one of them.
When a mysterious voice warns him not to board his usual Tube, twenty-seven commuters collapse at Westminster Station just minutes later.
Soon Stephen is drawn into a secret government department hidden beneath the streets of London, where ancient systems still protect the city from things that shouldn't exist.
Those systems are beginning to fail.
Unfortunately, Stephen discovers he may be the only person who can understand why.
He's forty-five, mildly traumatised, survives on coffee that costs far too much, and would much rather be fixing servers than London's spiritual infrastructure.
Sadly, London has other ideas.
An exhausted IT contractor. A city built on forgotten systems. A mystery hidden beneath modern London.
...stories where forgotten places hide impossible secrets...
...modern technology colliding with ancient folklore...
...ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations...
...British humour, hidden history, and mysteries beneath familiar streets...
...exhausted heroes who'd rather be fixing computers than saving London...
Dispatches from the Field
M.P. Moorland's irregular newsletter from the field.
Book news, hidden London, folklore, new blog posts, and the occasional bit of wittering.
No marketing funnel. No daily emails. Just the occasional update when I've found something interesting, written something new, or wandered into another forgotten corner of London.
If that sounds like your sort of thing, I'd love to have you along.
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About M.P. Moorland
M.P. Moorland writes contemporary British urban fantasy set in the hidden corners of London, where ancient systems fail quietly beneath modern life.
He spends his working life keeping modern infrastructure running, then goes home and wonders what might happen if London’s oldest infrastructure began to fail.
The sort of problem that definitely can’t be solved with a spreadsheet.