Daphne Du Maurier
Jamaica Inn
It's not often I fully agree with The Times opinion but this is a first-rate page-turner. It starts off very sinister and from there on in it's a roller coaster where your emotions are thrown around at times thinking it's quietened down, but why is there so much of the book left, and then you are dragged down into even more sinister stuff. I started reading it and after a couple of chapters thought I wasn't in the right frame of mind for something so dark so left it a day or so but when I picked it back up and got into the plot and the character of Mary I couldn't put it down. Not finished in one sitting but one of those books where you think I've got to the end of that chapter and that's a good place to stop as not on a cliff-hanger but then it's such an enjoyable (well, maybe gripping is a better description) read that you just pick it up again 5 minutes later with a cup of tea and hope you aren't disturbed. How did I get into Daphne as a novelist so late in life? I'm not sure if it's because they both write about the west country with it's wild heaths and moors but this novel in particular reminded me of Thomas Hardy and his bleak tragedies. In some ways Hardy is more brutal than du Maurier at least in parts. There again I've read more of him than her so I may have unpleasant surprises to come as I wade through her catalogue...
