Rebecca (75th Book)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a book I picked up because I had it in a vintage mystery compilation. I am getting married on two weeks and have a book themed wedding but wanted to be able to use the vintage book as table decor. It had two books from the 1001 list, this book and The Big Sleep. I managed to finish both while moving, wedding planning and wrapping up work.

I really enjoyed this book because it is narrated from the point of view of the nameless second wife. You are aware at the start of the book that something is horribly wrong and the suspense just builds and builds. The nameless narrator moves into Manderly, a beautiful mansion by the sea she has idolized since she was a child. She quickly finds out it isn't the beauty that the visiting tourists believe it to be. She is constantly plagued by servants that don't respect her and try to undermine her and there are rooms she is not allowed to go in because they were her new husband's first wife's.

I was fascinated the entire time I read this novel and I read it fairly quickly for the time I was at in my life.   It will always remind me of waiting for my fiancé to come with a cargo van to move all my stuff to Vancouver. I was trying to be patient but wasn't being very successful.

I would recommend this book to anyone particularly fans of suspense and older mystery novels. Try just have something going for them that modern mysteries can't seem to capture.