Murder on the Cliffs (Daphne du Maurier, Bk 1)
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
This is the first of three mystery novels featuring young Daphne Du Maurier written by Challis. Of course Du Maurier was the author of the classic Rebecca and many other novels.
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (13 May 1907 â 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories seldom feature a conventional happy ending, and have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. These bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for storytelling craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight". Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall where most of her works are set. As her fame increased through her novels and the films based upon them, she became more reclusive.
In Murder on the Cliffs, Daphne is spending the summer in Cornwall to look into some lost Charlemagne manuscripts stored at a local abbey. But while there, she stumbles into a murder mystery involving a rich family living at their estate called Padthaway. She discovers a young woman dead at the bottom of a cliff with a young girl screaming over her. Was it an accident or murder? Well Daphne decides to try to solve the mystery and to do so gets involved with the Hartley family of Padthaway. Along the way, she also meets up with her future husband, Sir Frederick Browning, who is working with Scotland Yard. The mysteries and the atmosphere of Padthaway and its family are to be the basis of Du Maurier's most famous work, REBECCA, but the place could have also inspired some of her other works with its history of pirates and smuggling.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good mystery featuring an author who I always enjoy reading (I've read several of du Maurier's novels). I did have one quibble: the book was supposed to take place in 1921. Since du Maurier was born in 1907, that would make her about 14 at the time but in the book she comes off as older ... probably 18 or 19. Would still give this a mild recommendation.
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (13 May 1907 â 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories seldom feature a conventional happy ending, and have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. These bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for storytelling craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight". Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall where most of her works are set. As her fame increased through her novels and the films based upon them, she became more reclusive.
In Murder on the Cliffs, Daphne is spending the summer in Cornwall to look into some lost Charlemagne manuscripts stored at a local abbey. But while there, she stumbles into a murder mystery involving a rich family living at their estate called Padthaway. She discovers a young woman dead at the bottom of a cliff with a young girl screaming over her. Was it an accident or murder? Well Daphne decides to try to solve the mystery and to do so gets involved with the Hartley family of Padthaway. Along the way, she also meets up with her future husband, Sir Frederick Browning, who is working with Scotland Yard. The mysteries and the atmosphere of Padthaway and its family are to be the basis of Du Maurier's most famous work, REBECCA, but the place could have also inspired some of her other works with its history of pirates and smuggling.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good mystery featuring an author who I always enjoy reading (I've read several of du Maurier's novels). I did have one quibble: the book was supposed to take place in 1921. Since du Maurier was born in 1907, that would make her about 14 at the time but in the book she comes off as older ... probably 18 or 19. Would still give this a mild recommendation.
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