A review by sarahmatthews
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Read on audio, narrated by Jonathan Price

Pub. 1951

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Wow this book was good, I raced through it in just a few sittings.

the story is told from the point of view of an orphan, Philip, who’s raised by his cousin, Ambrose, and they live on a large estate in Cornwall. Ambrose travels to Italy, falls for Rachel and they marry. A few months laterAmbrose dies in mysterious circumstances there and Rachel disappears. She sends word that she’s coming to the UK and the trouble begins!

the audio narrator was very successful in bringing Philip’s voice alive  and the opening’s absorbing, particularly when Philip’s trying to piece together who Rachel is from the little info he can glean from Ambrose’s letters, e.g. we see his image of her change as he reads about her ailments and starts to picture her as much older and therefore less likely to be of child bearing age which could affect his inheritance. 

Philip grew up in a household of men and struggles to communicate with Rachel when she arrives. They have some brilliantly petty arguments/misunderstandings: “This, I thought to myself, is another trick of women. To throw a jest in the air that left a sting vehind it”

“It was as if my change of mood afforded her delight, but why it would do so I had no remote idea.I only knew that when she teased me I disliked it and when she was tender I was happy and at peace.”

there’s a kind of jealousy between them that runs throughout the book for they both had such intense relationships with Ambrose and this adds to the tension.

DDM manipulates the reader into all sorts of suspicions, swinging back and forth as to which person is most at fault. 

And of course we only get Philip’s account of what rachel says/does; I really enjoyed this unreliability as it’s a lot of fun for the reader to try to work out the motivations of the characters.

One of my top 3 DDM reads!