Most of Henry James's fiction is realistic, but, in The Turn of the Screw, he uses his brilliant powers of observation to write a strange and disturbing ghost story. A young woman goes to work as a governess in a large country house. She must take full responsibility for two children — Miles and Flora — whose parents have died and whose uncle and guardian lives in London. In this lonely situation, the governess starts to see the ghosts of the former governess and a manservant, both of whom died in mysterious circumstances
But she's managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge: in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy; no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.
Determined to regain the favor of the queen, Devon Mathewes, Earl of Kerrich, tries to regain respectability by adopting an orphan and by hiring a sensible, unattractive governess, but the new governess soon turns his life upside down.
The China GovernessTimothy Kinnit is rich, handsome and well-bred. He seems to have everything. Then, on the eve of his elopement, he learns that he was adopted, and he is desperate to know who he really is. Someone seems no less keen to stop him finding out. Violence, deception and death bedevil the post-war housing estate that has grown from the ashes of the notorious Turk Street Mile, and the shadow of a long-forgotten murder hangs over it all - until Luke and Campion are finally able to dispel the darkness. By Margery Allingham
