Innocent

Solicitor Gerald Braddon doesn't know what to make of his newest client, the brooding, bitter, contentious heiress Flora Benson. Doubtless, her strangeness stems from her troubled past. Shortly after Flora and her older brother were orphaned, Miles died under mysterious circumstances while in their governess's care at their uncle's country estate. Meanwhile, young Flora was whisked away to recuperate from an illness, never to know her brother's true fate. The loss has haunted her ever since.

Now grown and with new resources at her disposal, Flora engages Gerald to investigate Miles's death. The search for answers leads them back to Bly House, an uncanny place that exercises a dark influence over its visitors. There, Gerald discovers the world is not as steady and predictable as he has always believed, and Flora confronts forgotten and suppressed terrors from her childhood. Alternating between the present-day investigation and Flora's eclectic youth, including her early years in India and a tumultuous adolescence at an English boarding school, Innocent reveals unexplored facets of familiar characters and challenges a well-known narrative.

Drawing inspiration from Henry James's classic novella, The Turn of the Screw, as well as popular film adaptations like The Innocents (1961) and The Nightcomers (1971), Innocent offers fresh chills and suspense for new readers and fans of the source material alike.

Amanda Desiree has had a lifelong fascination for real ghost stories and once aspired to be a parapsychologist but settled instead for studying psychology in college. She loves classic horror movies and the television shows "The Twilight Zone" and "Dark Shadows," and often draws inspiration from these sources.

Her published works include the novels Smithy, In the Shadow of the Skull, and Webster, and the non-fiction The Dark Shadow Event Diary.

Amanda lives in Las Vegas and is child-free.