Daphne du Maurier’s novels are moody, haunting, and psychologically suspenseful – making them perfect for autumn reading. So, while thinking about her novels recently, I came up with this ranking of her books. This list reflects my personal preferences and only includes those novels I have read so far – seven in total, excluding her short-stories.
My Cousin Rachel [1951]
“People who mattered could not take the humdrum world. But this was not the world, it was enchantment; and all of it was mine” [Daphne du Maurier, Virago Press, 1951/2003: 117].
It must be jarring not to see Rebecca in the first place, but I have my reasons. My Cousin Rachel finds du Maurier at the peak of her narrative powers. It is a dazzling story of relentless obsession, torments of youth, and endless questioning. I love it the most because it is so nuanced, clever, mysterious and psychologically-intriguing. In the story, Philip Ashley finds himself smitten with the wife of his older cousin, Ambrose, who passed away suddenly in Italy. Rachel presents herself as a woman of much beauty and sophistication, but awestruck Philip finally begins doubting himself, questioning whether he is not falling into the same trap Ambrose did…I love stories about hidden dangers slowly unravelling or characters hiding themselves or pulling strings from behind the scenes, and My Cousin Rachel struck a chord with me like Rebecca, which is perhaps more thrilling, but also more predictable, never did.
Continue reading “Daphne du Maurier’s Novels: Ranked”
The Woman in the Window is a 2018 debut thriller and international bestseller by A. J. Finn (Dan Mallory), which sold millions of copies, with the film based on the book to be released in 2020 starring Julianne Moore. Daily Express called the book “masterpiece of storytelling” and Stephen King said that it was “unputdownable”. Saving April is a 2016 lesser-known book by Sarah A. Denzil, released two years before The Woman in the Window and first being available in an e-book format. As I will show below, the similarities between the two books are overwhelming, both in their scope and in their nature, and, clearly, Finn took everything that he possibly could from Denzil’s thriller to write his bestseller. Jane Harper noted that Finn is “a tremendous new talent”. By the end of my comparison, it may become clear that the only talent Finn possibly has (apart from insolence) is taking nearly all of other writers’ ideas, elaborating on them slightly and then passing others’ stories as his own.
Both books undoubtedly drew inspiration from classic film noir, especially from Hitchcock’s Rear Window [1954] and Amiel’s Copycat [1995] as well as from such books as Gone Girl [2012] and The Girl on the Train [2015]. However, even though The Woman in the Window feels like a more accomplished and elaborate book that Saving April, it is still the same exact story as Saving April and the similarities between the two are too numerous in their number and too close in their nature for there to be any talk of “inspiration” or “simple source”. In fact, the two stories are so similar that Saving April can be the first/second/third draft of The Woman in the Window. Reading the two thrillers side-by-side, one may become immediately confused which part they read in which book – so similar they are in virtually every way.
