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The China Governess
The China Governess
Nov 1, 2024 4:25 AM

Author:Margery Allingham

The China Governess

A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY

Agatha Christie called her ‘a shining light’. Have you discovered Margery Allingham, the 'true queen' of the classic murder mystery?

Timothy Kinnit needs the help of private detective Albert Campion. Kinnit is rich, handsome and successful, but his past is a mystery to him and he needs Campion to find out how it connects him to the notorious Turk Street Mile slum. In addition, his own illustrious adopted family has a sinister secret of its own - involving a murderous nineteenth-century governess - that must also be brought to light by Campion's investigations.

As urbane as Lord Wimsey…as ingenious as Poirot… Meet one of crime fiction’s Great Detectives, Mr Albert Campion.

Reviews

Margery Allingham has worked her way up to a worthy place among the tiny hierarchy of front-rankers in the detective world

—— Tatler

One of the finest 'golden age' crime novelists

—— Sunday Telegraph

Faultless

—— The Times

Allingham captures her quintessential quiet detective Albert Campion to perfection... For those who relish classic crime fiction

—— Daily Express

The intricate plotting and jolting suspense hold you in a vice till the last page

—— Sunday Times

[A] seductively sinister story. The twists come together in a superbly scary denouncement which delivers a final sting in the tail. Brilliantly macabre

—— Sunday Mirror

Deliciously twisted ... truly chilling

—— Sarah Hilary

A tense, taut, almost gothic thriller ... impossible to stop reading. A brilliantly written, stand-out novel

—— Marian Keyes

The wit is sharp and the plot full of punishing twists

—— The Times Crime Club

An unputdownable psychological thriller with an ending that lingers long after turning the final page

—— Irish Times

A page-turner chock full of lies and betrayals

—— Kirkus Reviews

Liz Nugent's characters are as unforgettably monstrous as they are believable. A superbly crafted novel and an absorbing portrait of the purest kind of evil

—— Jane Casey

Excellent ... You can't put the book down. Highly recommended

—— Literary Review

"My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it." ... Lydia Fitzsimons lives in the perfect house with her adoring husband and beloved son. There is just one thing Lydia yearns for to make her perfect life complete, though the last thing she expects is that pursuing it will lead to murder . . .

—— From the Publisher's Description

Gone Girl fans will love Liz Nugent's Lying in Wait ... it twists, it turns, its characters are utterly despicable and it is a compulsive triumph

—— Stylist

A stunningly talented writer

—— Sophie Hannah

A tense, taut, almost gothic thriller where the tension tightens to near unbearable proportions. I devoured it in one sitting because it was impossible to stop reading. A brilliantly written, stand-out novel

—— Marian Keyes

Deliciously twisted, shot through with dark and acid humour and the denouement is truly chilling

—— Sarah Hilary

A gradual descent from ordinary, straightforward murder to the very heart of darkness. Liz Nugent's characters are as unforgettably monstrous as they are believable ... superbly crafted

—— Jane Casey

She keeps the reader on the edge of their seat from page one until the completely unexpected ending. I read Lying in Wait in one sitting. I just couldn't bear the suspense. I absolutely loved it

—— Amanda Redman

If you know someone that loved Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train then this is certainly the book for them. This was a holiday read for me a few months back and it really gripped me.

—— Makeup Savvy, Book of the Year

If you like your thrillers pacy, intriguing and well handled, then The Woman in Cabin 10is a good option… A catchy, captivating mystery.

—— Sunday Business Post, Book of the Year

Moshfegh’s writings stands out in several spectacular ways... In detail and texture the world she creates is unsettlingly vivid: a considerable achievement for a writer born so long after the era she depicts…. Eileen's anger and frustration dominate her story, helping to create a seamless mood of menace... Moshfegh's debut novel is set to attain classic status within the thriller genre.

—— Peter Carty , UK Press Syndication

An impressive character study full of subtle nuances, shrouded in mystery.

—— Western Mail

Eileen is an accomplished, disturbing and creepily funny first novel… Moshfegh’s control of tone and pace is masterly, her ventriloquism impeccable, and the period detail unobtrusively spot-on. I was occasionally reminded of Nabokov and Lena Dunham, among others, but her voice is her own, and immensely promising.

—— Lewis Jones , Spectator

Moshfegh’s fine, clear, short sentences carry complex thought and emotional revelation effortlessly.

—— Joanna Biggs , London Review of Books

Moshfegh’s boldness is admirable.

—— Times Literary Supplement

Moshfegh is a rising star… Eileen, her expertly paced debut novel concerns a dowdy prison clerk who lives with her gin-soaked father… Moshfegh delivers a thumping finish, leaving the reader dumbstruck by her sly, wicked storytelling genius.

—— Daily Telegraph

A conspicuous nomination as a new voice. The cult following Moshfegh has amassed in only four short years, with steady championing by the Paris Review.

—— Culture Trip

It reminded me of Lolita... Dark and fierce.

—— Monocle Arts Review

Moshfegh is, without a doubt, a very, very good writer… There’s lots of these wonderful moments. Moshfegh’s writing is at its most compelling and chilling when she delicately and intricately weaves the most finely spun…of spiders webs around her readers head… Eileen is a pretty brilliant debut novel.

—— Simon Savidge , Savidge Reads

Moshfegh’s exploration of deep and lasting emotional damage is quite brilliant.

—— Jordan Spencer , Conversation

A dazzling, original novel with nourish flourishes voiced by a wickedly sardonic narrator’

—— Jon Day , Guardian

The Man Booker shortlist has just been announced… Our favourite is Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh.

—— Lovereading

The character of Eileen is fascinating and Moshfegh’s creation is the reason this has made the longlist. Naive, unpredictable and able to elicit responses from sympathy to revulsion from the reader but throughout you will her to get her life back on track and escape both the prison she works in and the one she has created for herself. I would be very happy to see this on the shortlist.

—— Phil Ramage , Nudge

This is eerie, Hitchcockian and refreshingly original.

—— Sunday Telegraph

Sex, death, revenge and abuse run like dark currents beneath every page and come together in a brilliantly sustained denouement in which all the novel’s motifs…cohere and resonate.

—— Jude Cook , New Statesman

A striking and ingenious work… She elevates Eileen from mediocrity to magnificence, in a feat that is nothing short of miraculous… The mark of reading a true master of suspense… Demands to be reread… At once chilling, ambitious and unexpected, Eileen is undoubtedly deserving of its Booker Prize nomination, and, dare I say it, of a win.

—— Ella Holden , Oxford Student

[It is] gripping… The writing is brilliant.

—— Methodist Recorder

A very dark, morbid tale… I loved it, because it’s a really original voice that draws you into a dark psychology.

—— Victoria Sadler

A clever, eloquent and captivating debut novel.

—— Brad Davies , i, Book of the Year

[It is] thrillingly playful.

—— A.M. Holmes , Observer, Book of the Year

The most grimly compelling fiction came from a new voice: Ottessa Moshfegh’s Man Booker-shortlisted Eileen. It takes nerve to create such a thoroughly dislikeable narrator… It is like someone reaching into a bottomless bag of gifts.

—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , The Times, Book of the Year

I loved its refreshingly dark and complicated protagonist and grubbily vivid sense of time and place. Eileen reads like a smart, feminist take on Hitchcock or Highsmith and was, for that reason, impossible to put down.

—— Francine Toon , Running in Heels, Book of the Year

[Eileenis] compulsively deviant and utterly delicious… I savoured every single word of it.

—— Mark O'Halloran , Sunday Business Post, Book of the Year
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