Set in Civil War America, this novel follows the fortunes of a cast of young characters as the war makes an inevitable impact on their lives. Abolitionist Lon Price is a detective with the new firm known as Pinkerton's. Margaret Miller is a bubble-headed Southern belle. Rose Greenhow is a beautiful Confederate spy. Hanna Siegel is a young woman who wishes she could prove herself in battle. And Captain Frederick Dasher, serving in the First Virginia Cavalry under General Jeb Stuart, isn't sure why he's there. Veteran historical novelist John Jakes brings them all together in Washington D.C. in a tale that culminates with Lincoln's assassination there in 1865, just after the end of the war.

Beginning in 1720, James follows the fortunes of Charleston, S.C., and its citizens up to the end of the Civil War.

When London's reigning drug czar dies, chaos takes over the city's underworld as various mobsters grapple for the throne. Panicking Ralph Ember, a class-conscious gangster, is the front runner, but his rivals aren't going down without a fight. Detective Colin Harpur and and his boss, Desmond Iles, try to stanch the bloodshed.

This volume includes THE OTHER HOUSE (1896), THE SPOILS OF POYNTON (1897), WHAT MAISIE KNEW (1898), and THE AWKWARD AGE (1899).

James's dense, complex prose style and his deep and subtle musings into the springs of character are as evident in his short stories as in his novels. Like much of his fiction, his short works are often about the contrasts between America and Europe or the plight of the artist, and many of them are influenced by the supernatural stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. This volume of late works includes many of James's greatest: "Greville Fane," "Owen Wingrave," "The Middle Years," "The Death of the Lion, " "The Figure in the Carpet," and "The Turn of the Screw."