Du Maurier knows Suspense!

Daphne du Maurier is the Grand Dame (literally) of British mystery writers. Rebecca is the first of her novels that I've read and it kept me guessing until the very end. This is a dark, psychological tale that starts out a little slow, but by the time the pieces start to fall into place you'll be hooked

The narrator of the book (we never learn her name) meets a dashing older man in Monte Carlo. They fall in love and marry quickly. When they return home to England, this very young, very shy woman has trouble adapting to life at Manderly (their estate). Everything is compounded by the fact that his first wife, Rebecca, was a larger than life figure. The narrator feels crushed by the weight of the comparison.

I must admit that I don't have a lot of sympathy for shy characters. I spent part of the book wishing that she's stand up for herself. Du Maurier is such a skillful writer. The sense of sympathy we feel for the narrator grows as we slowly begin to realize that Rebecca was not the paragon everybody thought she was. When the narrator finally stands up for herself I cheered.

I don't want to give too much away. The plot twists and turns until you're not sure which way is up. A reviewer on another site mentioned that Dan Brown should take lessons from Dame Du Maurier. I couldn't agree more.