It's the season of peace on earth and good will to men, except at R&P Labs, which has suddenly found itself in the middle of a feud between two Seattle seafood restaurants. A customer has died from an unusual form of food poisoning found in oysters, and the restaurant where he had his last meal is in trouble. So is R&P, which had just tested its food and given it a clean bill of health. So as Christmas approaches, the R&P team – Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch – once again find their scientific jobs interrupted by the urgent need for some detective work. In "Shellshock," the third mystery in the R&P series, Mitch goes undercover as a waiter as he and his colleagues join forces with an inept electrician, a Chihuahua and a seagull named Fred to solve the mystery, salvage their reputation and lay some old ghosts to rest.