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Saturday, August 22, 2026

Frenchman's Creek and Other Famous Books by Daphne du Maurier

 


I'm re-reading an old favorite, Frenchman's Creek by du Maurier, originally published in 2003. 

Romance, suspense, drama, and adventure rolled into one book. A bored but wealthy housewife in Restoration London, Lady Dona escapes to her other house in Cornwall. She meets a daring French pirate and joins him in an adventure she has always dreamed of. 

I forgot the ending, and am wondering how the story will pan out at the end of the novel. 



Jamaica Inn is another of du Maurier's books I've read and want to revisit. Set in Cornwall among smugglers, this is another adventure novel. Young Mary Yellan joins her uncle at Jamaica Inn and finds romance and danger.



The House on the Strand is another book that was intriguing, with some magical realism. A young man is offered a potion that sends him back to medieval Cornwall. However, he finds he wants to go back time and again when the potions wear off after several hours. 



The Scapegoat is one of my favorites. John and Jean meet by chance at a railway station and notice their uncanny resemblance to each other. Jean takes John's satchel containing all his id's and disappears, leaving John to switch identities and manage a crumbling French chateau, where failing properties and dismal family relationships will challenge all his wits.


And of course, there is du Maurier's most famous  book, Rebecca, made into several films over time.

In this book, a new wife arrives at her husband's mansion on the Cornish coast and must deal with the memory of his deceased wife, Rebecca, who has a strange hold on the household and even on her husband. 


What are you reading this week?


Saturday, August 15, 2026

Nine Coaches Waiting: Drama and Suspense in this Gothic Romance

 

More Gothic romances by Mary Stewart


I had to wait a while to get Nine Coaches Waiting at my local library as it was buried in the stacks of our downtown library. It was an old copy, well used, but all the pages were intact.

Story: Governess Linda Martin arrives at a French mansion/chateau in eastern France near the Swiss border, to teach the young Count Philippe de Valmy the English language. She fears his uncle whom she thinks wants the death of her charge in order to inherit the Valmy estate. Linda falls in love with another uncle, Raoul, whom she fears is in on the plan to murder young Philippe. 

Setting: The chateau is set in the woods and forests, with a winding road leading uphill to it.  There is a wooden bridge over a stream that spans this road. Some of the drama of the story takes place on this very bridge.

Review: Wonderful suspense mixed with romance and drama as Linda tries to save young Philippe from her wicked uncles. Too bad she has fallen in love with one of the uncles. But is he really as wicked as the thinks?  I loved the days she spent running in the woods with Philippe in order to get away from the ones trying to kill him. A satisfying ending to the family story of inheritance and greed.


Winter Reading List: Multiple Genres in Fiction

  Books Chosen for Winter Reading Sept. 28, 2026, romance This cozy Christmas romance follows an overworked publicist who is snowed in at th...