The story begins by describing a hanging that happened when the main character, Phillip, was a boy. DuMaurier builds suspense right away when we learn by the end of this scene that something wicked is coming, only we don't know who will commit the evil.
Phillip's cousin and guardian, Ambrose, marries Rachel late in life. She is a beautiful younger woman who is about ten years older than Phillip. When Ambrose dies mysteriously, Phillip hates and blames Rachel, until she comes to his Cornwall estate and enchants him.
The questions of who is good and who is evil will haunt the reader long after the story is finished. As always, DuMaurier makes the reader question what they think they know and leaves questions unanswered even at the end of the story. This novel is classic Gothic DuMaurier. I found myself frustrated with Phillip and with Rachel, but I couldn't stop listening to the story. The narrator of the audio version was wonderful.
Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.
Read to a child today even if that child is you.
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