Affinity

By: Sarah Waters

Narrated by: Juanita McMahon

Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's, Affinity is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery, and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale.

Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners, murderers, and common thieves, Margaret feels herself drawn to one of the prison's more unlikely inmates - the imprisoned spiritualist Selina Dawes.

Sympathetic to the plight of this innocent-seeming girl, Margaret sees herself dispensing guidance and perhaps friendship on her visits, little expecting to find herself dabbling in a twilight world of seances, shadows, unruly spirits, and unseemly passions.

©1999 Sarah Waters (P)1999 W F Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written . . . I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star" (Val Hennessy)

"Indeed, this is such a brilliant writer that her readers would believe anything she told them" (A. N. Wilson, Daily Mail)

"Refined, repressed and simmering . . . a delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism" (Mel Steel, Independent on Sunday)

A bit Laborious to be honest.

The plot twist is more of a form of euthanasia to mercifully end the tedium.