My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

I spent a good portion of a day trying to sort out my feelings about this book. Basically ??. While I don’t like it quite as much as Rebecca, it had the same haunting quality that I just cannot get over ??
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SYNOPSIS: Ambrose Ashley and his heir, Philip, live a comfortable bachelor life at the grand Ashley estate in the English countryside. But a fateful trip to Florence changes everything. Ambrose falls in love, and dies – never returning to his cousin Philip. When the widow Rachel turns up in England, Philip is torn between suspicion and infatuation. Did she have a part in Ambrose’s death or is she merely a pitiable widow dealt a terrible hand??
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Daphne Du Maurier paints an alluring picture of love, deceit, and mystery with this psychological thriller. The evidence is laid out and at the end, the reader is left to decide whether or not Rachel is guilty. We see the story through Philip’s eyes, which creates yet another layer of uncertainty – how reliable of a narrator is he, really? Is he quite stable?
Overall – the writing itself is beautiful, the characters are fleshed out and fascinatingly portrayed, and the landscape of the setting is enchanting. I highly recommend this book.