The calm of the Scottish highlands is shattered when a new Laird dies a gruesome death on a decommissioned Russian nuclear submarine. Discovering her inheritance to be under threat, his money-grabbing widow enlists Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to establish the cause of his death.

The investigation gets off to a bad start, and soon Jeff, Jeannie and the ghostly Marty find that they are discovering more questions than answers. What are the motives of the two Israelis who make a bid for the detective agency and are later discovered snooping around the submarine? How is it that one of them can sense Marty's presence? Who is Abaddon: the mysterious force mentioned in a coded message found in one of the dead man's pockets? And why is the film crew that has arrived to make a documentary about the local fishermen, acting so strangely? It is only when Jeannie is kidnapped by the Russian Mafia and Jeff is trapped on board the submarine, fighting for his life, that the trio begin to uncover the awful truth...

The TV series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) stars Bob Mortimer as the luckless detective Jeff Randall, and Vic Reeves as his supernatural partner-in-crime-detecting, Marty Hopkirk. Ghost in the Machine is the second original novel to accompany the series.