A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS

Spunky Harriet Marsh, pulled by a letter of distress from her old friend Kate, takes a post as governess in the village of Lower Easton to find out the source of the trouble--the trouble being the sudden disappearance of Kate's young cousin Eliza, along with assorted other young Victorian maidens. According to Harriet's terrified ward Jonathan and the superstitious villagers, Eliza has been taken by the ghost of Fred Humble, a local rustic who was buried alive by accident and appears--complete with funeral regalia and hearse--now and then in the churchyard, accompanied by mysterious lights and horrid consequences. Does this notion conceal someone's real-life dirtywork? The presence of an unsavory band of spiritualists would seem to say so, not to mention the odd and nasty behavior of Jonathan's handsome father Valentine. Perversion? Rape and murder?. White slavery? Certainly, at least. But, despite the R-rated subject matters, Bennetts' gothics continue to thrill only at the Nancy Drew level.