strange and random happenstance

The first time I ever heard of The 39 Steps was when my mom got her complete set of The Franklin Library of Mystery Masterpieces. I spent hours pouring over the covers of the books. The one that fascinated and intrigued me the most was The 39 Steps. It was a pen and ink drawing of what appeared to be a giant black cloud or rock hovering over a staircase going down the side of a cliff. It was unnerving and strange so it should come as no surprise that it was done by Edward Gorey. At the time I was not yet an avid reader so books were all about their outward aesthetic and this one has always stayed with me. Which is why when I started to get into film, and in particular Alfred Hitchcock, I was really excited to watch his adaptation of The 39 Steps. Hitchcock, especially in his early films, is very hit or miss. I feel like 1940 and Rebecca was his turning point. Therefore The 39 Steps, made five years earlier, suffers. It doesn't help that a lot of outdoor scenes were filmed on sound stages. This is something that is a personal pet peeve of mine, primarily because of Hitchock's Suspicion. Therefore when it was announced that there was a new version of The 39 Steps coming out staring Rupert Penry-Jones I was more than a little excited. He is Captain Wentworth in my favorite version of Persuasion, so I was all in, even if he wouldn't reach the pinnacle of his career until a year after The 39 Steps with Whitechapel. When creating this adaption they wanted to go all in on the Bond meets Bourne vibes, but I think of it more as Lord Peter Wimsey meets Indiana Jones. There's an elegance to Penry-Jones as Hannay that is more upper class English gentleman than Bond ever was. He's also just reacting to situations he's thrust into, much like Bourne, but oh so British. Bond was almost always in control and too cool a customer. This was just a thrilling adventure with some of the best of British television stars where sadly David Haig was playing against type as the baddie. Which is why I feel it's more in the territory of Indiana Jones. This could be an exciting serial at the cinema back in the day. And much like Professor Jones, I objected to some of Hannay's more sexist attitudes towards women. But by the end his partner in crime, Victoria Sinclair, had more than corrected all of his attitudes with her competence and cunning. The fact that a woman with eidetic memory saves the day really warmed my cold embittered heart. Yet the highlight for me, and for Rupert Penry-Jones according to interviews, is that they totally did the crop duster scene from North by Northwest. Now you might think they just added this as a little nod to Hitchcock's film but that isn't the only reason why. In the book when he arrives in Scotland Hannay's pursuers use a plane to find him. So maybe Hitchcock liked the scene from the book so much that instead of using it in his adaptation he kept it to use on a later film? I'm just saying it's a possibility. But the biggest possibility I wished for this movie hasn't come to pass, and that's a sequel. As I mentioned before it has that vibe of adventure serials which inspired Indiana Jones, and it's not like John Buchan wrote only one Richard Hannay adventure. He appears in eight books! Why can't we just have more fun shows like this? Well, probably because of all the people bitching about the wrong make and model of cars in this and not just taking it as it is.... But I can't blame them too much, I'm a pedant too depending on the topic.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: David Haig, Edward Gorey, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Hitchcock, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Lord Peter Wimsey, North by Northwest, Persuasion, Rebecca, Richard Hannay, Rupert Penry-Jones, Suspicion, The 39 Steps, Whitechapel

The 1996-1997 season of Masterpiece Theatre was rare for me in that I caught it entirely. I was taking a year off before college and therefore had time to indulge in my much loved passions of reading and watching miniseries while freaking out about my future. The adaptation of Nostromo starring Colin Firth and A Royal Scandal starring Richard E. Grant were highlights that year. But what I wasn't looking forward to was the season ending remake of Rebecca. This was at the height of my Hitchcock fanaticism and I couldn't comprehend why anyone would remake a classic. Yes, Hitchcock didn't get it 100% right, but you can not deny that Laurence Olivier IS Maxim de Winter. It won best picture at the Oscars! So I planned to boycott the remake. The problem when living with your parents is that they have their own opinions on what they want to watch and seeing some of Rebecca turned out to be unavoidable. What little I saw made me instantly withdraw from the television room. My mom didn't last very long either, despite her love of Diana Rigg. For almost twenty years I shunned this adaptation shuddering from the memory of those few glimpses. So I thought perhaps I should give it a second chance. Maybe Diana Rigg could be a superior Mrs. Danvers? Perhaps the beauty of Manderley would be done more justice in color with it's lush abundant floral growth? Or perhaps I should have trusted my gut reaction and avoided this piece of crap entirely. What is striking about this adaptation is they have assembled some of the most talented actors in the British Isles and beyond and somehow sucked the life out of them. If it weren't for Faye Dunaway and Jonathan Cake I don't think a single line would have been uttered above a dull monotone. Rebecca is full of emotion and passion, both repressed and on full display, and yet here it comes across as the most flat and emotionless story ever. It should be turbulent and forceful like the sea, not fake and false like that shitty shack that was slapped together on the beach. After the first episode my dislike became more and more audible. Three hours and nothing went right. I kept making myself step back and think, if I hadn't read the book would I enjoy this? The answer was no time and time again. While the heavy-handed foreshadowing might have been driving me loopy, if Du Maurier was still alive I know what she'd hate most... they made this adaptation into a romance. Yes, there are romantic elements in Rebecca, but that is NOT what the book is. The moniker of "Romance Writer" hung around Du Maurier's neck like a millstone her entire life. To have her greatest novel reduced to being nothing more than a romance? No. She would have snapped. Plus, I like Charles Dance very much, don't get me wrong, but to see him groping and pawing awkwardly at Emilia Fox's cheek and sucking her face so that it looks like he's eating her. Eww. The book STRONGLY hints that the de Winters had a sexless marriage and yet here the demonstrative affection is overwhelming. It's the exact opposite of the book, yet oddly passionless. In the end one would hope that at least Emilia Fox was getting a kick out of playing a role her mother played almost twenty years earlier. And at least it appeared that Diana Rigg was having fun. At least someone was.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Diana Rigg, Emilia Fox, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Hitchcock, Joanna David, Jonathan Cake, Laurence Olivier, Manderley, Masterpiece Theater, Maxim de Winter, Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Beatriz lost everything with the death of her father. Branded a traitor he was executed and she and her mother moved in with relatives who treated them worse than slaves. When Beatriz catches the eye of Don Rodolfo Solórzano she jumps at the chance of a new beginning and a home of her own. He's well off and has a position of power in the new Provisional Government and is wealthy enough to support two residences, a house in the city and his family pulque plantation in the county. Her mother's dislike of him can be overcome in time, and as for the rumors of what happened to his first wife? She thinks little of it, which might be just what her new husband wants, someone desperate enough to not ask questions. His job keeps him in town while Beatriz will primarily reside at the Hacienda San Isidro, an arrangement that suits him perfectly. Of course Beatriz had pictured San Isidro as her husband romanticized it in stories of his childhood. She did not expect the rundown house with the verdant growth gone to rot. She also didn't expect to be dumped there. Surely a newly wedded man would want to spend time with his wife? But she is soon left alone in a hostile environment. Her sister-in-law Juana wants nothing to do with her or the house and the staff keep themselves apart. Beatriz got what she thought she wanted and is more alone than she's ever been. If she can restore San Isidro, bring the house and the gardens back to life, she can lure her mother to live with her and perhaps then she will feel less alone. But the house doesn't want this. She hears voices and sees things that cannot possibly be real. She looks to Juana for confirmation but gets none. Yet why does Juana only enter the house when she has to and only during daylight? Beatriz has nowhere to turn but the church. Padre Andrés is a newly ordained priest and he is the only one who will listen to Beatriz. He grew up at San Isidro and as soon as he returns he can tell that something is horribly wrong. This isn't the home he knew and Beatriz is right, there's danger here. Thankfully Andrés is willing to help the young bride, but as they battle San Isidro they have to battle their growing attraction and victory is not assured. Not in the least.

This book was lauded as Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic. Now I, for one, will admit that PR for a book has to always go for the biggest names, the one haunted house book with true name recognition to compare to the haunted house book they're trying to get you to pick up. It's all designed to grab our attention, and I totally fall for it. Every. Single. Time. You liked this? Well you'll love this, it's the same but better! No, it never is. Except once in a great while. Whenever I see a book compared to my beloved Rebecca I read the book and wonder if the author or the PR department had actually ever read Du Maurier's classic. And as for the Mexican Gothic comparison, after that book became a surprise hit every Gothic book coming out had to somehow be "like" it. Here's the thing though, Mexican Gothic wasn't that good, whereas this book is. Oh my, they really delivered on the "same but better." I should find those PR people and apologize for how I've always trashed them for their cunning deceptions. It's their job after all... I've even been known to do it! The reason The Hacienda beats Mexican Gothic hands down is Isabel Cañas didn't complicate this story with mushrooms and what have you. She went for the standard tropes of the Gothic genre, dead first wife, hostile family, lonely outsider newlywed, recalcitrant servants, haunted house, conflicted priest, forbidden romance, and wrote these tropes to the highest standard. There isn't much original here, but it is so well crafted, so well drawn out, that you will love it completely. The story of Beatriz is propulsive. How will she survive? I kept turning the pages late into the night. I could see it all before me and yet somehow it maintained my interest. The Hacienda has all the goodness of a true Gothic haunted house story paired with what it means to belong and want a home. And that's where it set itself above the tropes, that's where it was unique, in Beatriz's desire for a place of her own. Her family had been cast out and degraded and she took the first opportunity she had to break free. Yes, it was a dangerous decision in the end, but who wouldn't risk it all to find their place in the world? To finally feel safe? I know I would, wouldn't you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Place to Call Home, Daphne Du Maurier, For the Love of Book Clubs, Ghosts, Gothic, Haunted House, Isabel Cañas, Mexican Gothic, Mexico, Priests, Pulque Plantation, Rebecca, The Hacienda, Tropes

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Beatriz lost everything with the death of her father. Branded a traitor he was executed and she and her mother moved in with relatives who treated them worse than slaves. When Beatriz catches the eye of Don Rodolfo Solórzano she jumps at the chance of a new beginning and a home of her own. He's well off and has a position of power in the new Provisional Government and is wealthy enough to support two residences, a house in the city and his family pulque plantation in the county. Her mother's dislike of him can be overcome in time, and as for the rumors of what happened to his first wife? She thinks little of it, which might be just what her new husband wants, someone desperate enough to not ask questions. His job keeps him in town while Beatriz will primarily reside at the Hacienda San Isidro, an arrangement that suits him perfectly. Of course Beatriz had pictured San Isidro as her husband romanticized it in stories of his childhood. She did not expect the rundown house with the verdant growth gone to rot. She also didn't expect to be dumped there. Surely a newly wedded man would want to spend time with his wife? But she is soon left alone in a hostile environment. Her sister-in-law Juana wants nothing to do with her or the house and the staff keep themselves apart. Beatriz got what she thought she wanted and is more alone than she's ever been. If she can restore San Isidro, bring the house and the gardens back to life, she can lure her mother to live with her and perhaps then she will feel less alone. But the house doesn't want this. She hears voices and sees things that cannot possibly be real. She looks to Juana for confirmation but gets none. Yet why does Juana only enter the house when she has to and only during daylight? Beatriz has nowhere to turn but the church. Padre Andrés is a newly ordained priest and he is the only one who will listen to Beatriz. He grew up at San Isidro and as soon as he returns he can tell that something is horribly wrong. This isn't the home he knew and Beatriz is right, there's danger here. Thankfully Andrés is willing to help the young bride, but as they battle San Isidro they have to battle their growing attraction and victory is not assured. Not in the least.

This book was lauded as Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic. Now I, for one, will admit that PR for a book has to always go for the biggest names, the one haunted house book with true name recognition to compare to the haunted house book they're trying to get you to pick up. It's all designed to grab our attention, and I totally fall for it. Every. Single. Time. You liked this? Well you'll love this, it's the same but better! No, it never is. Except once in a great while. Whenever I see a book compared to my beloved Rebecca I read the book and wonder if the author or the PR department had actually ever read Du Maurier's classic. And as for the Mexican Gothic comparison, after that book became a surprise hit every Gothic book coming out had to somehow be "like" it. Here's the thing though, Mexican Gothic wasn't that good, whereas this book is. Oh my, they really delivered on the "same but better." I should find those PR people and apologize for how I've always trashed them for their cunning deceptions. It's their job after all... I've even been known to do it! The reason The Hacienda beats Mexican Gothic hands down is Isabel Cañas didn't complicate this story with mushrooms and what have you. She went for the standard tropes of the Gothic genre, dead first wife, hostile family, lonely outsider newlywed, recalcitrant servants, haunted house, conflicted priest, forbidden romance, and wrote these tropes to the highest standard. There isn't much original here, but it is so well crafted, so well drawn out, that you will love it completely. The story of Beatriz is propulsive. How will she survive? I kept turning the pages late into the night. I could see it all before me and yet somehow it maintained my interest. The Hacienda has all the goodness of a true Gothic haunted house story paired with what it means to belong and want a home. And that's where it set itself above the tropes, that's where it was unique, in Beatriz's desire for a place of her own. Her family had been cast out and degraded and she took the first opportunity she had to break free. Yes, it was a dangerous decision in the end, but who wouldn't risk it all to find their place in the world? To finally feel safe? I know I would, wouldn't you?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Place to Call Home, Daphne Du Maurier, Family, Forbidden Romance, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Gothic, Haunted House, Isabel Cañas, Mexican Gothic, Mexico, PR, Priests, Pulque Plantation, Rebecca, The Hacienda, Tropes

The Wife Upstairs  by Rachel Hawkins
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: January 5th, 2021
Format: Kindle, 227 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

To be one of the housewives of Thornfield Estates, now that would be something. The gated community feels a world away from the apartment "Jane" begrudgingly shares with John, literally the last person she wants to share a roof with, but he is literally her last lifeline. Perhaps that's why Jane takes the odd piece of jewelry while walking the housewives' dogs, not just to help herself financially, but to feel like she's one of them. But if things go according to plan she won't be a dog walker for long. One of the houses seems different from the other McMansions. It's set back a bit from the street and Jane can't help but admire it. While she's standing in the middle of the street one day the owner of the house peels out of the driveway and almost hits her. Luckily the only thing hurt is the car. Eddie Rochester's car. The mysterious widower whose wife Bea ran the famous Southern Manors lifestyle brand and tragically disappeared with her best friend Blanche the previous year while at their lake house. Eddie Rochester who would be a catch in anyone's book. Jane knows she has to play this right. She can tell that he's interested and actually finds the "real" her funny. It's not long before she's out from under John's thumb, despite his attempts to extort her and Eddie for money, and under Eddie's roof. She even starts to ingratiate herself to the other housewives. But she has two big problems to overcome, their love of Bea and Blanche, and the fact that she's not a wife. Until Eddie puts a ring on it it seems the housewives will be friendly but still hold her at a distance because they aren't sure if she'll be sticking around. If Jane has anything to say about it she'll be there for the long haul. But the longer she's there, as soon as that ring is on her finger, she starts to wonder is this all there is? And what about the rumors about Eddie? What really happened to Bea and Blanche. Once Blanche's body is found everything changes. Will Jane lose this life she's fought so hard to get or will Bea take it all away from her?

Rachel Hawkins premise for this book is Jane Eyre deserved better than Mr. Rochester. While I disagree for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that given Jane's situation in life in the original novel her prospects were limited, I don't disagree that it's nice that Jane got the money and the dog in this version. The problem I have is this version of Jane. This isn't my Jane. This isn't anyone's Jane. Unless you like manipulative grasping assholes. Sure, she's a survivor, but does she have to be such a bitch? Rachel Hawkins clearly thinks that Mr. Rochester was below Jane and instead of elevating him she brought Jane down to his level. Why!?! I mean, really, why? I just don't get the purpose of this retelling other than the author airing her own grievances without really keeping it all in context. And she's drawing from some classic material, not only is she reinterpreting Jane Eyre, but there's also a lot of Wide Sargasso Sea folded in, and a huge helping of Rebecca, which makes a ton of sense given Daphne Du Maurier's obsession with the Brontes. But that's where so many of my issues then come from. These three books are classics, they are beautiful and lyrically written, and this, this is just workman language. Therefore whenever Rachel Hawkins actually uses a line from the source material, for example when she says that "[w]hatever souls were made of, mine and Jane’s were the same - or at least similar enough" dragging Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights to the table, you are just gobsmacked by how basic this book's writing really is. But when Bea declares that "[r]eader, I fucked him" I'm sure my groan was audible for many miles. If I wasn't reading on my Kindle, well, the book would have been hurled. Much as I felt like doing. I'm sorry, that's not a funny joke and the fact that Rachel Hawkins thinks it is is a true sign as to why I would never have liked this book. I am so wary of retellings and yet, despite everything in me saying, oh, this could be different, this could be good, reader, I hated it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charlotte Bronte, Daphne Du Maurier, Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys, Murder Most Foul, Rachel Hawkins, Rebecca, Retelling, Rochester, Southern Manors, The Wife Upstairs, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Hester Why isn't really Hester Why. But who she was had too much baggage. Too much pain. Too many secrets. In fact, she might just be cursed. So she is making a new start, or more accurately, a new start is being foisted upon her. So why not take a new name in the process as an extra level of protection? With only a handful of belongings and a hip flask she heads to Cornwall and Morvoren House. She is to be nurse to the elderly Louise Pinecroft. When Hester arrives at Morvoren the winter is harsh and bleak, there is a sense the snow is finally coming, and the sea is ominous. Hester always thought she'd like to see the sea, now she's wondering if she'll regret this desire. Miss Pinecroft's house perches precariously above the churning waves. She spends her days in an unheated room with all the curtains drawn keeping vigil over bone china. Big vases, small figurines, plates, teacups, all this, as well as Miss Pinecroft, are now Hester's bounden duty. The nurse in her rebels. This elderly woman needs warmth and sustenance and proper clothes, not a drafty room where she wallows in her own filth and myopically watches knickknacks! But just as Hester has her secrets, so does Morvoren House. Bought by Louise's father after their family was ravaged by consumption, he was going to regain his medical renown by finding the cure to the disease that carried away his family. But forty years later there is no cure. Louise is an old woman consumed by the horrors of the past and the uncanny. Morvoren House might have meant to foster in a new age of medical understanding, instead it's caught in the old ties of folklore and fairy tales. Something is happening in the house. Locked doors are being opened without a key, salt borders doorways, clothes are wore inside out, young fertile women are in danger, and the bone china must never be left alone.

Whenever someone tells me to read a book because it reminds them of Daphne Du Maurier I gird my loins. Because if there's one thing this has proven to me time and time again is that people haven't actually read Daphne Du Maurier. They think they know what her writing is like, probably because they watched Rebecca, and have therefore jumped to conclusions. So let it be known when I say a book reminds me of Daphne Du Maurier I actually mean it. I've done my research. Meaning I've read more than one of her books. In fact I've broken double digits not counting re-reads. So yes, The House of Whispers doesn't let you down on the Du Maurier vibe. Now I won't go as far as Natasha Pulley and say it might be better than Du Maurier, because it's different, and that makes it it's own wonderful thing. This is part Poldark part Du Maurier part Fairy Tale and it's bloody brilliant. Pushing aside her first two Georgian books, once Purcell embraced the Gothic aesthetic, her next two books, The Silent Companions and The Poison Thread, could, in a way, be interchangeable in their narrative structure, drawing out the supernatural reveal until right at the end. It felt rushed to have the reveal and then the curtain drop literally within the span of a handful of words. This was gimmicky, and I was fully prepared to have it repeat here, but it didn't. I wouldn't necessarily say I was pleasantly surprised, more in awe. Laura Purcell has grown so much as an author it's almost like this book is separate from the rest of her body of work. I can't put my finger on any one thing that made this book better except that everything is better. Her character development, her plotting, her structure, every little thing kept me invested as I devoured this book. She has always had a well developed sense of place, almost at the cost of the characters, but here the characters, even those I didn't like, were fully rounded and fascinating. This is a tale of tragedy and otherness and obsession, and I can't wait to see what Laura Purcell will do next!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bone China, Consumption, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Fairy Tales, Gothic, Laura Purcell, Natasha Pulley, Poldark, Rebecca, Regency, The House of Whispers, The Poison Thread, The Silent Companions

The Haunting Season by Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal, Natasha Pulley, and Laura Purcell
Published by: Pegasus Crime
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Eight bestselling, award-winning writers return to the time-honored tradition of the seasonal ghost story in this spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.

Long before Charles Dickens and Henry James popularized the tradition of supernatural horror, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a spooky tale.

Now eight bestselling, award-winning authors - all of them master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre - bring the tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding new collection of original spine-tingling tales.

Taking you from the frosty fens of the English countryside, to the snow-covered grounds of a haunted estate, to a bustling London Christmas market, these mesmerizing stories will capture your imagination and serve as your indispensable companion to cold, dark nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the ghostly spell of winters past..."

I mean, the description along makes this a must read, Laura Purcell and Natasha Pulley make this a MUST BUY!

I Would Prefer Not To by Herman Melville
Published by: Pushkin Collection
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new selection of Melville's darkest and most enthralling stories in a beautiful Pushkin Collection edition.

Includes "Bartleby, the Scrivener", "Benito Cereno" and "The Lightning-Rod Man."

A lawyer hires a new copyist, only to be met with stubborn, confounding resistance. A nameless guide discovers hidden worlds of luxury and bleak exploitation. After boarding a beleaguered Spanish slave ship, an American trader's cheerful outlook is repeatedly shadowed by paralyzing unease.

In these stories of the surreal mundanity of office life and obscure tensions at sea, Melville's darkly modern sensibility plunges us into a world of irony and mystery, where nothing is as it first appears."

If a title of a book could sell me on it, this would be that title.

A Surprise for Christmas edited by Martin Edwards
Published by: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A Postman murdered while delivering cards on Christmas morning. A Christmas pine growing over a forgotten homicide. A Yuletide heist gone horribly wrong. When there's as much murder as magic in the air and the facts seem to point to the impossible, it's up to the detective's trained eye to unwrap the clues and neatly tie together an explanation (preferably with a bow on top).

Martin Edwards has once again gathered the best of these seasonal stories into a stellar anthology brimming with rare tales, fresh as fallen snow, and classics from the likes of Julian Symons, Margery Allingham, Anthony Gilbert and Cyril Hare. A most welcome surprise indeed, and perfect to be shared between super-sleuths by the fire on a cold winter's night."

Ah, Christmas and crime! Two things that compliment each other so well.

Murder Most Festive by Ada Moncrieff
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The perfect cozy Christmas murder mystery.

Imagine being stuck indoors with your family, waiting for something to happen... and then disaster strikes.

Christmas 1938. The Westbury family and assorted friends have gathered together for another legendary Christmas at their Sussex mansion. As family tensions simmer on Christmas Eve, the champagne flows, the silver sparkles and upstairs the bedrooms are made up ready for their occupants. But one bed will lie empty that night...

Come Christmas morning, guest David Campbell-Scott is found lying dead in the snow, with only a hunting rifle lying beside him and one set of footprints leading to the body. But something doesn't seem right to amateur sleuth Hugh Gaveston. Campbell-Scott had just returned from the East with untold wealth - why would he kill himself? Hugh sets out to investigate... and what he finds is more shocking than he ever could have expected."

Sigh, I love me some murder for the holiday season...

Tomes Scones and Crones by Colleen Gleason
Published by: Oliver-Heber Books
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Paperback, 298 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"At forty-eight, Jacqueline Finch has a nice, easy life with few responsibilities: she's been a librarian in Chicago for twenty-five years, she doesn't have a husband, children, or pets, and she's just coasting along, enjoying her books and a small flower garden now that she's over the hill.

That is, until the Universe (helped by three old crones) has other ideas.

All at once, Jacqueline's staid (and boring) life is upended, and the next thing she knows, she's heading off to Button Cove to start a new life as the owner of Three Tomes Bookshop.

The bookstore is a darling place, and Jacqueline is almost ready to be excited about this new opportunity... until Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Danvers show up. Somehow, the literary characters of Sherlock Holmes's landlady and Rebecca deWinter's creepy and sardonic housekeeper are living persons who work at the bookshop (when they aren't bickering with each other). Not only does Jacqueline have to contend with them-and the idea that people regularly eat pastries while reading books in her store -but the morning after she arrives, the body of a dead man is found on her property.

Things start to get even more strange after that: Jacqueline is befriended by three old women who bear a startling resemblance to the Witches Three from Macbeth, an actual witch shows up at her bookshop and accuses Jacqueline of killing her brother, and the two women who own businesses across the street seem determined to befriend Jacqueline.

And then there's the police detective with the very definite hot-Viking vibe who shows up to investigate the dead body...

The next thing Jacqueline knows, her staid and simple life is no longer quiet and unassuming, and she's got crones, curses, and crocodiles to deal with.

And when a new literary character appears on the scene...things start to get even more hairy and Jacqueline is suddenly faced with a horrible life and death situation that will totally push her out of her comfort zone...if she's brave enough to let it. After all, isn't forty-eight too late for an old dog to learn new tricks?

From the bestselling author of the Wicks Hollow series, Tomes, Scones and Crones is the first book in a new paranormal women's fiction series about coming into one's own when you're over the hill, and owning one's "croneness.""

Even if I weren't already a fan of Colleen Gleason, I mean come on, this book sounds like it was written just for me! Especially with Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Danvers showing up! 

Along the Saltwise Sea by A. Deborah Baker
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For readers of Kelly Barnhill and Cat Valente's Fairyland books, adventure and danger lurk Along the Saltwise Sea in this new book by Seanan McGuire's latest open pseudonym, A. Deborah Baker.

Be sure to explore the myriad wonders that can be found Along the Saltwise Sea.

After climbing Over the Woodward Wall and making their way across the forest, Avery and Zib found themselves acquiring some extraordinary friends in their journey through the Up-and-Under.

After staying the night, uninvited, at a pirate queen’s cottage in the woods, the companions find themselves accountable to its owner, and reluctantly agree to work off their debt as her ship sets sail, bound for lands unknown. But the queen and her crew are not the only ones on board, and the monsters at sea aren’t all underwater.

The friends will need to navigate the stormy seas of obligation and honor on their continuing journey along the improbable road.

Writing as A. Deborah Baker, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Seanan McGuire takes our heroes Avery and Zib (and their friends Niamh and the Crow Girl) on a high seas adventure, with pirates and queens and all the dangers of the deep as they continue their journey through the Up-and-Under on their quest for the road that will lead them home....

Welcome to a world of talking trees and sarcastic owls, of dangerous mermaids and captivating queens in this exceptional tale for readers who are young at heart in this companion book to McGuire's critically-acclaimed Middlegame and the sequel to Over the Woodward Wall."

I would give almost anything to have Seanan McGuire's work ethic!

The Brides of Maracoor by Gregory Maguire
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Multimillion-copy bestselling author Gregory Maguire unveils the first in a three-book series spun off the iconic Wicked Years, featuring Elphaba’s granddaughter, the green-skinned Rain.

Ten years ago this season, Gregory Maguire wrapped up the series he began with Wicked by giving us the fourth and final volume of the Wicked Years, his elegiac Out of Oz.

But “out of Oz” isn’t “gone for good.” Maguire’s new series, Another Day, is here, twenty-five years after Wicked first flew into our lives.

Volume one, The Brides of Maracoor, finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken in by a community of single women committed to obscure devotional practices.

As the mainland of Maracoor sustains an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor could threaten the stability and wellbeing of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill?

The trilogy Another Day will follow this green-skinned girl from the island outpost into the unmapped badlands of Maracoor before she learns how, and becomes ready, to turn her broom homeward, back to her family and her lover, back to Oz, which - in its beauty, suffering, mystery, injustice, and possibility - reminds us all too clearly of the troubled yet sacred terrain of our own lives."

I don't think I can adequately explain my excitement about returning to Oz. Needless to say I preordered my signed copy ages ago. 

Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life by Sutton Foster
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the 2-time Tony Award-winner and the star of TV’s Younger, funny and intimate stories and reflections about how crafting has kept her sane while navigating the highs and lows of family, love, and show business (and how it can help you, too).

Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, including her fraught relationship with her agoraphobic mother; a painful divorce splashed on the pages of the tabloids; her struggles with fertility; the thrills she found on the stage during hit plays like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, and Violet; her breakout TV role in Younger; and the joy of adopting her daughter, Emily. Accompanying the stories, Sutton has included crochet patterns, recipes, and so much more!

Witty and poignant, Hooked will leave readers entertained as well as inspire them to pick up their own cross stitch needles and paintbrushes."

I have been a fan of Sutton Foster's for ages. The fact that she's a crafter makes me so happy.

The Panda, the Cat and the Dreadful Teddy by Paul Magrs
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 12th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The surely soon-to-be million-copy bestselling sort-of inspirational parody...

Enter the world of me, Panda, plus my sometime-friends Cat and Teddy. You will find us living our best lives, trying (and occasionally succeeding) to be kind to each other. The cat is quite nice but can be a little bit selfish. Teddy can come across as very nice, with his squeaky voice and looking so tiny and helpless. But I must warn you, Teddy can be a vicious little backstabber, actually.

This is a book of nice illustrations and some words from which you will likely gain some sort of inspiration. Like:

'Just because you're struggling, it doesn't mean you're failing... But it might do.'
'Nothing beats kindness, ' said the cat. 'Gin does', said Panda.
'If you don't stop saying inspirational things to me, I'm going to punch you up the hooter.'
'You OK, hun?' asked Panda, but he was just taking the piss.
'We're just so, so lucky to have each other as friends, and it's going to make a marvellous book.'"

I really hope that this book by the delightful Paul, he's not at all dreadful like Teddy, does become a bestseller with millions of copies sold. I've had mine preordered for ages!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A. Deborah Baker, Ada Moncrieff, Christmas, Colleen Gleason, Crochet, Gregory Maguire, Herman Melville, Laura Purcell, Murder, Natasha Pulley, Oz, Paul Magrs, Rebecca, Seanan Maguire, Sutton Foster, Wicked

The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: June 9th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Hester Why isn't really Hester Why. But who she was had too much baggage. Too much pain. Too many secrets. In fact, she might just be cursed. So she is making a new start, or more accurately, a new start is being foisted upon her. So why not take a new name in the process as an extra level of protection? With only a handful of belongings and a hip flask she heads to Cornwall and Morvoren House. She is to be nurse to the elderly Louise Pinecroft. When Hester arrives at Morvoren the winter is harsh and bleak, there is a sense the snow is finally coming, and the sea is ominous. Hester always thought she'd like to see the sea, now she's wondering if she'll regret this desire. Miss Pinecroft's house perches precariously above the churning waves. She spends her days in an unheated room with all the curtains drawn keeping vigil over bone china. Big vases, small figurines, plates, teacups, all this, as well as Miss Pinecroft, are now Hester's bounden duty. The nurse in her rebels. This elderly woman needs warmth and sustenance and proper clothes, not a drafty room where she wallows in her own filth and myopically watches knickknacks! But just as Hester has her secrets, so does Morvoren House. Bought by Louise's father after their family was ravaged by consumption, he was going to regain his medical renown by finding the cure to the disease that carried away his family. But forty years later there is no cure. Louise is an old woman consumed by the horrors of the past and the uncanny. Morvoren House might have meant to foster in a new age of medical understanding, instead it's caught in the old ties of folklore and fairy tales. Something is happening in the house. Locked doors are being opened without a key, salt borders doorways, clothes are wore inside out, young fertile women are in danger, and the bone china must never be left alone.

Whenever someone tells me to read a book because it reminds them of Daphne Du Maurier I gird my loins. Because if there's one thing this has proven to me time and time again is that people haven't actually read Daphne Du Maurier. They think they know what her writing is like, probably because they watched Rebecca, and have therefore jumped to conclusions. So let it be known when I say a book reminds me of Daphne Du Maurier I actually mean it. I've done my research. Meaning I've read more than one of her books. In fact I've broken double digits not counting re-reads. So yes, The House of Whispers doesn't let you down on the Du Maurier vibe. Now I won't go as far as Natasha Pulley and say it might be better than Du Maurier, because it's different, and that makes it it's own wonderful thing. This is part Poldark part Du Maurier part Fairy Tale and it's bloody brilliant. Pushing aside her first two Georgian books, once Purcell embraced the Gothic aesthetic, her next two books, The Silent Companions and The Poison Thread, could, in a way, be interchangeable in their narrative structure, drawing out the supernatural reveal until right at the end. It felt rushed to have the reveal and then the curtain drop literally within the span of a handful of words. This was gimmicky, and I was fully prepared to have it repeat here, but it didn't. I wouldn't necessarily say I was pleasantly surprised, more in awe. Laura Purcell has grown so much as an author it's almost like this book is separate from the rest of her body of work. I can't put my finger on any one thing that made this book better except that everything is better. Her character development, her plotting, her structure, every little thing kept me invested as I devoured this book. She has always had a well developed sense of place, almost at the cost of the characters, but here the characters, even those I didn't like, were fully rounded and fascinating. This is a tale of tragedy and otherness and obsession, and I can't wait to see what Laura Purcell will do next!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bone China, Consumption, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Fairy Tales, Going Gothic, Gothic, Laura Purcell, Natasha Pulley, Poldark, Rebecca, Regency, The House of Whispers, The Poison Thread, The Silent Companions

Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana's in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat and mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there's nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing - survive the night."

Riley Sager, to me, writes THE BOOK of the summer, so here it is, THE BOOK of this summer! I can't wait!

Black Ice by Carin Gerhardsen
Published by: Scarlet
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the snow-covered silence of Swedish midwinter, a terrible accident and a deadly secret draws several strangers together...

January in Gotland. The days are short, the air is cold, and all the roads are covered in snow. On a deserted, icy backroad, these wintery conditions will soon bring together a group of strangers with a force devastating enough to change their lives forever when, in the midst of a brief period, a deadly accident and two separate crimes leave victims in their wake.

Four years later a single phone call is all it takes to bring back the terror of that day and to set in motion a plot for revenge. For Sandra it started as an unremarkable wintery day of shopping followed by a kind gesture from a stranger. For Jeanette it began with the thrill of an illicit rendezvous with her lover. Both women had driven past the same icy ravine, but only one was in the car that caused a deadly crash, and only one left a man to die alone in the snow.

Each carried a secret from that day, a secret that, if revealed, could connect them to a larger, more terrible transgression...And there is someone out there who knows the whole picture, and who would rather kill than allow it all to come to light.

Chilling and atmospheric, Black Ice is a gripping standalone novel of suspense from the author of the internationally-bestselling Hammarby series."

Shivers! From the suspense, not the cold!

Little Black Book by Kate Carlisle
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is on the case when a rare edition of Rebecca leads to murder in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series.

Brooklyn and her hunky husband, security expert Derek Stone, have just returned from a delightful trip to Dharma, where the construction of their new home away from home is well underway, when a little black book arrives in the mail from Scotland. The book is a rare British first edition of Rebecca, and there’s no return address on the package. The day after the book arrives, Claire Quinn shows up at Brooklyn and Derek’s home. Brooklyn met Claire when the two women worked as expert appraisers on the television show This Old Attic. Brooklyn appraised books on the show and Claire’s expertise was in antique British weaponry, but they bonded over their shared love of gothic novels.

Claire reveals that during a recent trip to Scotland she discovered her beloved aunt was missing and her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt’s belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt’s are in danger and worries that her past may be coming back to haunt her.

But just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered, stabbed with a priceless jeweled dagger. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek page through the little black book, where they discover clues that will take them to the shadows of a medieval Scottish castle on the shores of Loch Ness. Under the watchful gaze of a mysterious laird and the irascible villagers who are suspicious of the strangers in their midst, Brooklyn and Derek must decode the secrets in Rebecca to keep their friend’s past from destroying their future...."

I don't care if I have to deal with murder if I get my hands on a rare edition of Rebecca! 

Murder at Keyhaven Castle by Clara McKenna
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"With her wedding to Viscount "Lyndy" Lyndhurst just days away, strong-willed American ex-pat Stella Kendrick is the talk of Edwardian society - and the focus of a deadly mystery - in Clara McKenna's third historical mystery set in England's New Forest region at the turn of the 20th century.

Between ornate bridal gown fittings and meetings with Lyndy's distant relatives, Stella finally feels less like an out-of-place American and more like a respected aristocrat. Everything changes as the arrival of an anonymous gift and return of her overbearing father cast a dark shadow over the festivities, conjuring difficult memories and new fears...

Tensions intensify when a daytrip to Southampton ends with a suspicious stranger getting trampled by a horse-drawn cab. Before anyone can explain why the victim possessed a newspaper clipping about the upcoming ceremony at Morrington Hall, tragedy strikes again, this time resulting in a murder that turns Stella's world completely upside down while implicating one of Lyndy's well-regarded family members...

Facing loss, postponed nuptials, and uncertain threats, Stella and Lyndy rush to connect two very different crimes and identify the guilty culprit hiding among elite wedding guests. But as the couple blows the lid off of scandalous secrets, they realize that catching this killer - and living to tell the tale - may prove as impossible as closing the class divide."

Oh, I NEED to know how the deaths are connected, don't you?

The Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Published by: Bloomsbury YA
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Darkness blooms in bestselling author Kalynn Bayron's new contemporary fantasy about a girl with a unique and deadly power.

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined - it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it...until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her."

Grade school me would have reveled in this as my summer reader. Adult me feels the same. 

The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Yalxi, the deposed Supreme Mistress of the Guild of Sorcerers, is on a desperate mission. Her lover and confidant seized her throne and stole the precious diamond heart, the jewel that is the engine of her power. Yalxi sets out to regain her magic and find a weapon capable of destroying the usurper. But this will mean turning to unlikely allies and opening herself up to unpleasant memories that have been suppressed for many years. For Yalxi is no great hero, but a cunning sorceress who once forged her path in blood - and must reckon with the consequences. Set in a fantastical land where jewels and blood provide symbiotic magical powers to their wearers, The Return of the Sorceress evokes the energy of classic sword and sorcery, while building a thoroughly fresh and exciting adventure ripe for our era."

Everyone is getting in on the success of Silvia Moreno-Garcia but I can guarantee you that Subterranean Press will have the best editions. Hands down. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Black Ice, Carin Gerhardsen, Clara McKenna, Kalynn Bayron, Kate Carlisle, Rebecca, Riley Sager, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Subterranean Press, Survive the Night, The Poison Heart, The Return of the Sorceress

I fully admit that the one and only reason I watched this miniseries was to see a young Giles. I might have a thing for Anthony Stewart Head, especially as Watcher and librarian on Buffy the Vampire Slayer... Therefore, over the years, I've tried to make sure I watch everything he's currently in and in my spare time watch his back catalog. Back in that catalog was this wonderful adaptation of Love in a Cold Climate, where just two years after appearing on Lillie he's back on the small screen as Tony Kroesig, the very minimally fictionalized Bryan Guinness. He's just simply adorable with his blonde hair rescuing a rabbit for his future wife who will bolt on him. He's just so perfectly cast and that's what makes this adaptation stand out for me. The cast was so fully rounded and actually felt like a family. Well, when Judi Dench signs on, even in the eighties she had pull, and well, everyone else just fell into place, even her real life husband Michael Williams joined as Davey Warbeck! See, a family! And as Tony's wife Linda is the wonderful Lucy Gutteridge, whom I adore as the love interest opposite Val Kilmer in Top Secret! and in Till We Meet Again, the miniseries I always call "the one where Hugh Grant's a Nazis!" And in an entirely random roll we have Anthony Higgins, Rathe from Young Sherlock Holmes, playing an over-the-top chef who doesn't speak English! I could go on and on, but just take my word for it, perfect casting. Also, seeing as until now, all adaptations named Love in a Cold Climate are actually adaptations of two of Nancy Mitford's books, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, crammed under the more memorably named book, we have a lot of ground to cover in one series. Unlike the one at the turn of the century which was only two episodes jammed together as one movie stateside, here we have eight episodes to luxuriate in the story. To get all the details right. And why is that important now? Because we have another adaptation on the way! So it's time to bring out the books, sit down and watch these two adaptations, and then see if this new version with Lily James is up to snuff or if she should have stayed away, like with Rebecca.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anthony Stewart Head, Bryan Guinness, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Judi Dench, Lily James, Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford, Rebecca, Rupert Giles, The Pursuit of Love, Val Kilmer

Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman
Published by: HarperCollins e-books
Publication Date: 2000
Format: Kindle, 466 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Colonel Julyan has always wondered if he did wrong by Rebecca. He was her only real friend when she was the mistress of Manderley and he never looked too closely at the verdict of suicide once it was revealed she was dying of cancer. Could her husband, Maxim, have killed her in a jealous rage without ever realizing she was using him to end her life? Ever since that day in London, before Manderley burnt to the ground, the Colonel has had questions and has never searched for the answers. Almost twenty years have passed, Maxim is now dead, but the sensational tales of Rebecca de Winter and Manderley are still dredged up by the press every few years. There are even a few books circulating about. But the Colonel thinks that he has put the past behind him. That is until Terence Gray appears asking questions and giving the Colonel nightmares. The Colonel has always kept his suspicions close to his chest. Never even telling his daughter about his misgivings. But his health is failing and perhaps the last thing he needs to do before he dies is settle his score with Rebecca and that might just begin with letting Terence Gray in. Because Terence knows that the Colonel holds all the cards, the village gossips have given him tons of hearsay, but he needs the truth. He needs the truth about Rebecca, because it might just be his truth as well.

For years I have staunchly refused to read Rebecca's Tale. Having had a bad experience reading Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter I swore off all books that were prequels, sequels, or retellings of Rebecca vowing to cling only to the words of the great Daphne Du Maurier. And then I waivered. Why did I waiver? Why couldn't I have been steadfast? Why couldn't I have found some other something, anything, to fill this last day of Du Maurier December instead of forcing myself to slog through this book? Because Rebecca's Tale is way longer than you'd think, the almost 500 pages are set in eight point font if you buy the book and then return it to Amazon realizing your eyes can't take eight point font and instead read it on your Kindle. But my main problem is the hubris to think that you can write a sequel to Rebecca and even use Daphne Du Maurier's famous opening line slightly tweaked as if you had the genius to come up with it on your own? Oh Sally Beauman, shame, shame, shame. There's a reason there are so few reimaginings of Rebecca versus the work of Jane Austen. Everyone else knew better! Everyone knows not to randomly take plot points from other characters and make then apply to Rebecca. Everyone knows not to purposefully defecate on a classic with reinterpreting every little thing and hating on that which Du Maurier held dear. Everyone but you that is.

Yet if this book is any indication of Sally Beauman's ability as a writer she's just not that good. She doesn't go in for subtly or nuance, instead using a blunt instrument to hammer home every point a thousand times over. While Du Maurier might have lacked nuance in her earlier writing or some of her dramatic reveals, she was unparalleled in using the nuance of language to covey her story. So Beauman couldn't have been a worse choice to carry on Du Maurier's legacy, a writer like her isn't humble enough to understand there are some things you just can't improve on. Instead she used heavy-handed narration. Repeating ad nauseum that a narrator has a bias, thus casting aspersions on Du Maurier's own writing! As for her own? She shows bias by making Colonel Julyan a misogynist who doesn't get the irony of his repeatedly telling Terence to beware bias. Remember bias, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and here's a bat over your head if you haven't grasped the concept of unreliable narrators. But with all the heavy-handed foreshadowing you might just have missed the neon warning sign of bias. Between all the "no inkling then of the revelations that were to come today" and "I...wasn’t to understand its significance for several days" or "and it was then that she gave me information that would prove crucial, though I didn’t realize that immediately" you might have started a drinking game to pass the time and passed out in the process.

As for what drives Rebecca's Tale? There really aren't unanswered questions or loose ends to tie up from Du Maurier's story so the majority of this book is laboriously rehashing the details of Rebecca over and over and over. Big reveals being things we already knew but these characters didn't, like Rebecca's inability to have children. Did we need two hundred pages leading up to this reveal that shocked Terence to his core? NO! Because Du Maurier had done and dusted it before. What loose ends Du Maurier did leave are not answered here at all. Because the only wise move Sally Beauman makes is to know that she is ill equipped to answer those things which are better left unanswered. So we have a book with hundreds of pages devoted to revealing that what we knew and then when she does start to diverge, when she does start to create her own story she decides to purposefully leave everything open-ended. Excuse me? So this book is basically the characters from Rebecca analyzing their own story and then coming to no solid conclusions? But not in a fun Jasper Ffordian way, in a horrible, stodgy, dissertation sort of way? Why would anyone want to write this book let alone read it? Sally Beauman purposefully not filling in the blanks from Maxim's father's will to what really happened with Rebecca and her father filled me with such rage that I almost threw my Kindle across the room until I remembered it wasn't the Kindle's fault. It was Sally Beauman's.

Though by far the most frustrating section of this book is when we finally read "Rebecca's Tale." Here's the first person narration of Rebecca we've been waiting for all along and boy does it disappoint. Because ironically, the characters searching for answers we already knew at least had a bit of mystery, a bit of a forward momentum. Here Rebecca elliptically lays everything out. And while she omits a lot it's too straightforward. There's no way to connect to the story. There's no element of the hunt anymore so these revelations don't feel earned by the writer or the reader. Plus the misogynistic tone of Colonel Julyan starts to spill into Rebecca's own story. If I didn't know for a fact that Sally Beauman is a women I'd say she was a man who really hates women. Maybe she's just a woman who hates other women? Because how else can I account for the victim blaming which oozes off these pages? Rebecca was raped as a seven year old child in France by a fourteen year old boy. She isn't just blamed by her mother and all the locals, Max blames her and even starts to identify with her rapist. What. The. Fuck? If this was a gimmick to tar Maxim, it doesn't work, instead it tars the author. She comes across as someone who wouldn't support the #MeToo movement and in fact might go on television and claim he sexual assault was all her fault. Yes, Du Maurier did write a story about the destruction of a strong willed woman. But she would not have written her ever as a victim.

The biggest problem though with Rebecca's Tale is that while Sally Beauman obviously knows her Du Maurier she doesn't understand it. She can throw out as many hints to her life and work from J.M. Barrie to The Birds, but she doesn't understand the true underpinnings of Rebecca. Instead she tries to force a statement about women and marriage and subservience that doesn't connect to her source material at all. Rebecca had it's roots in Jane Eyre, and both stories deal with the roles women have in society and what that means. Yet both the second Mrs. de Winter and Jane in the end are the ones with power. They love and care for their husbands but they are in complete and total control. By entering a state of wedded bliss they didn't give up their power they eventually found it. Therefore to have Colonel Julyan's daughter throw away her past as a caretaker and deny herself marriage for freedom shows just how ignorant Sally Beauman is, she doesn't understand the power shifts. The whole point of Du Maurier's book is that women can have power in traditional roles that you wouldn't think would give them power. As much as I have mixed feelings over Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea at least she understood her source material. She GOT Jane Eyre and therefore made a classic in her own right. She understood women and power and wasn't about distorting the original but about giving it an even deeper meaning instead of victim blaming and sweeping the ashes under the carpet.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, J.M. Barrie, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Jean Rhys, Kindle, Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, Rebecca's Tale, Sally Beauman, Sequels, Susan Hill, The Birds, Wide Sargasso Sea

If you follow me on social media you might have heard some rather declarative statements on November 14th when Netflix announced they were doing a new version of Rebecca starring Lily James and Armie Hammer. It's not that I object to their being a new Rebecca, I just happen to object to almost everything we know so far about this project. Let's start with Armie Hammer... um, he's not British. Not that I'll hold that against him... what I hold against him is that he's only three years older than Lily James. Maxim de Winter is about twenty-five years older than his twenty-one year old bride, not three! Lily could work, I honestly have liked her in everything she's been in, she just needs a different leading man. Because of all the actors out there, you need a certain something to BE Maxim de Winter, something indefinable. For example I was just watching The Addams Family last night and Raúl Juliá, he would have been an amazing Maxim. Armie, not so much.

Now let's break down the other aspects of the production. The book is being adapted by Jane Goldman, best known for two of the worst X-Men films and the Kingsman franchise, big budget superhero blockbusters don't exactly mesh well with Daphne Du Maurier unless you're keeping maybe two ideas and scrapping the rest of the story like Hitchcock did with The Birds. Yes, Goldman also adapted Stardust, which I liked, but she also did The Woman in Black, which I hated, making her hit-and-miss with adaptions. As for the director Ben Wheatley, having two episode of Doctor Who I disliked AND that horrid adaptation of High-Rise on his resume aren't endearing him to me in the least. Then I have questions for the team, is it going to be a jam-packed two hour production or a lavish four hour miniseries, because there's more chance in doing justice to the book if it's four hours. But with Netflix it could go either way... Here's hoping they salvage something good out of this star-crossed crew instead of making me hate it more than I hate the Charles Dance version.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Armie Hammer, Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Doctor Who, Du Maurier December, High-Rise, Hitchcock, Lily James, Netflix, Raul Julia, Rebecca, Stardust, The Addams Family, The Birds, The Woman in Black, X-Men

Rebecca
Based on the Book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Emilia Fox, Charles Dance, Faye Dunaway, John Horsley, Jonathan Stokes, Diana Rigg, Tom Chadbon, Geraldine James, Denis Lill, John Branwell, Jonathan Cake, Kelly Reilly, Anthony Bate, Ian McDiarmid, Timothy West, and Lucy Cohu
Release Date: April 13th, 1997
Rating: ★
To Buy

The gregarious Mrs. Van Hopper has hired herself a mousy little companion to accompany her to Monte Carlo. Yet she's put out that the old crowd aren't around and then laid up with a sniffle. Her young companion uses this time to become close to the one person in Monte Mrs. Van Hopper is fascinated with, Maxim de Winter, the inconsolable widow and owner of the great house Manderley. When Mrs. Van Hopper decides to decamp Maxim gives the little mouse a choice, go to New York with her employer or come to Manderley with him as his wife. It isn't a hard choice to embrace being the second Mrs. de Winter, a choice that even Mrs. Van Hopper approves, because at least someone bagged him. Back at his luxurious estate in England Maxim's young new wife feels that the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, looms large. But even despite the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and her doom and gloom, nothing can stop the newlyweds love for each other. That is unless Maxim is still in love with Rebecca... the discovery of Rebecca's scuttled boat in the bay will try their relationship, destroying everything or bringing them closer together.

The 1996-1997 season of Masterpiece Theatre was rare for me in that I caught it entirely. I was taking a year off before college and therefore had time to luxuriate in my much loved passions of reading and watching miniseries. The adaptation of Nostromo starring Colin Firth and A Royal Scandal starring Richard E. Grant were highlights that year. In fact when I recently learned A Royal Scandal was an extra on The Queen's Sister I instantly bought the DVD, despite my dislike of The Queen's Sister. Now if they'd just release Nostromo on anything other than VHS I'd be set because I'm seriously dying with only my old taped copy. But what I wasn't looking forward to was the season ending remake of Rebecca. This was at the height of my Hitchcock fanaticism, having taken film classes in high school and planning on taking more in college, and I couldn't comprehend why anyone would remake a classic.

Yes, Hitchcock didn't get it 100% right, but you can not deny that Laurence Olivier IS Maxim de Winter. It won best picture at the Oscars! So I planned to boycott the remake. The problem when living with your parents is that they have their own opinions on what they want to watch and seeing some of Rebecca turned out to be unavoidable. What little I saw made me instantly withdraw from the television room. My mom didn't last very long either, despite her love of Diana Rigg. For almost twenty years I have shunned this adaptation shuddering from the memory of those few glimpses. So I thought perhaps I should give it a second chance. Maybe Diana Rigg could be a superior Mrs. Danvers? Perhaps the beauty of Manderley would be done more justice in color with it's lush abundant floral growth? Or perhaps I should have trusted my gut reaction and avoided this piece of crap entirely.

What is striking about this adaptation is they have assembled some of the most talented actors in the British Isles and beyond and somehow sucked the life out of them. If it weren't for Faye Dunaway and Jonathan Cake I don't think a single line would have been uttered above a dull monotone. Rebecca is full of emotion and passion, both repressed and on full display, and yet here it comes across as the most flat and emotionless story ever. It should be turbulent and forceful like the sea, not fake and false like that shitty shack that was slapped together on the beach. After the first episode my dislike became more and more audible. Three hours and nothing went right. I was visibly cringing at all that they got wrong. The second Mrs. de Winter isn't just shy with a can do attitude but meek! Oh the rage! But even if I hadn't been comparing it to the book, it was awful. I kept making myself step back and think, if I hadn't read the book would I enjoy this? The answer was no time and time again.

While the heavy-handed foreshadowing might have been driving me loopy, if Du Maurier was still alive I know what she'd hate most... they made this adaptation into a romance. Yes, there are romantic elements in Rebecca, but that is NOT what the book is. The moniker of "Romance Writer" hung around Du Maurier's neck like a millstone her entire life. To have her greatest novel reduced to being nothing more than a romance? No. She would have snapped. Plus, I like Charles Dance very much, don't get me wrong, his performance of himself in Jam and Jerusalem, Clatterford stateside, is one of my favorite cameos on TV ever; but to see him groping and pawing awkwardly at Emilia Fox's cheek and sucking her face so that it looks like he's eating her. Eww. The book STRONGLY hints that the de Winters had a sexless marriage and yet here the demonstrative affection is overwhelming. It's the exact opposite of the book, yet oddly passionless. And that lame excuse made for their lack of children? Like Maxim would run into a burning building to save Mrs. Danvers? NO!

Yet, I have to give props where props are due. These go to Diana Rigg and Jonathan Cake, Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell, Rebecca's maid and blackmailing cousin, respectively. I think these two actually read the source material, which Arthur Hopcraft obviously didn't when adapting this because who would purposefully change the famous introductory chapter and slap it into an upbeat coda? But enough about Arthur Hopcraft because this obviously ended his career if you check out IMDB. As for Hitchcock he proves that even the greats can get it wrong and he just didn't get Mrs. Danvers, and went camp and over the top. Diana Rigg nails it. The sadness that is behind that stiff facade. As for Cake, I don't think I can pay him a higher compliment than saying I really thought he WAS Favell. Rigg and Cake got the menacing down perfectly. Yet they also had the depth Du Maurier demanded of these characters. While they had the menace, they also had the vulnerability, and ultimately the patheticness of these two and how hollow their last act, destroying Manderley, really is.

But in the end, seeing as this miniseries was called Rebecca, you'd think they'd at least get her right? Yet they didn't. It's almost as if Rebecca is an afterthought. She should be front and center, there, oppressing Maxim and his new wife every single second of their time at Manderley, but she's oddly not there. It's like Mrs. Danvers and Jack Favell are the only ones who remember and it's only when they are around that Rebecca still lives. Otherwise it's as if she's long dead and long gone, not "haunting" them as should be the case. But this couldn't very well have been a romance if they concentrated on the Gothic nature of the book with Rebecca haunting Manderley now could it? As for when Rebecca actually appears... she's impressionistic and the camera is just too fucking close to her face. I wouldn't know it was Lucy Cohu, an actress I quite like who stared in the aforementioned movie The Queen's Sister, if it wasn't for the credits. Therefore we can say that like the book, there's a problem with Rebecca. Here it's her irrelevancy, there it's her possession of you body and soul. Let the book possess you and avoid this catastrophe. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Charles Dance, Daphne Du Maurier, Diana Rigg, Du Maurier December, Emilia Fox, Hitchcock, Jonathan Cake, Lucy Cohu, Manderley, Masterpiece Theater, Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca, Richard E. Grant, Romance

Rebecca
Based on the book by Daphne Du Maurier
Starring: Joanna David, Elspeth March, Jeremy Brett, Hugh Morton, Richard Willis, Anna Massey, Terrence Hardiman, Vivian Pickles, Leon Sinden, William Morgan Sheppard, Julian Holloway, Virginia Denham, Sylvia Coleridge, Harriet Walter, Neville Hughes, Victor Lucas, Richardson Morgan, Robert Flemyng, and John Saunders
Release Date: 1979
Rating: ★★★★
Out of Print

Mrs. Van Hopper has her own friend of the bosom. Paid to be her companion, but really acting as her dogsbody. When Mrs. Van Hopper falls ill her friend catches the attention of widower Maxim de Winter and when Mrs. Van Hopper decides to head home to New York Maxim gives the young girl a choice; New York with Mrs. Van Hopper or Manderely with him. As his wife. She hastily marries Maxim and becomes the second Mrs. de Winter. Though she worries and frets that she won't be up to the job, especially once she sees Manderely in person and meets the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. She feels overwhelmed and Mrs. Danvers does everything in her power to make things worse for her new mistress. It doesn't help that Rebecca has left her imprint everywhere, not just physically, but emotionally. She is in the hearts and minds of the staff, the locals, and even Maxim and his family. So much is expected of the new bride, even a lavish costume ball, just like Rebecca used to host. How is she to continue when Maxim is obviously questioning the wisdom of returning to Manderely? But is it the place or the new bride he regrets more? Only the revelation of a horrible secret will show the truth to the young bride. 

If you are looking for the most accurate adaptation of Rebecca you couldn't do better than this version made by the BBC in the late seventies if you tried, and oh how I've tried. While my heart will always belong to Alfred Hitchcock's version as the obsession of my youth, this one is now my favorite, in spite of the whole last episode being out of sync. This was just chock-a-block with 1970s BBC goodness. If shows like The Pallisers, The Duchess of Duke Street, and Upstairs, Downstairs are your idea of what quality TV should be, then this one's for you! There's a nostalgic quality to shows that went for acting chops over everything else. The sets might be recycled and familiar, yes, that is the window from the maid's garret in Upstairs, Downstairs in a dowdy room in Monte Carlo, and that is the drawing room from The Pallisers transplanted to Manderley with a desk hiding a certain broken cupid, but that just gives you the familiarity that makes this adaptation feel like coming home. While I had never seen this adaptation before, Jeremy Brett and Joanna David surrounded by so many actors I have seen for years and years on the small screen just made me giddy that for once I'd found a Rebecca with less to complain about that made me feel like I was visiting an old friend.

Though, this is me, so you know I will have something to complain about; and that complaint is Joanna David, though it's through no fault of her own. Or maybe a little because I didn't like how they bracketed the show with how she was telling someone about her dream about Manderley while wearing pearls, but that was the director's fault. So the reason I had issues with Joanna David was because of the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca staring Emilia Fox and Charles Dance. Emilia Fox not only played the second Mrs. de Winter, a role here played by Joanna David, but she happens to be Joanna David's daughter. I've never really thought of them looking too much alike, but watching this adaptation from the seventies, I'd occasionally catch a similarity, the way Joanna tilted her head or pursed her lips and I wouldn't be seeing her anymore I'd be seeing her daughter and seeing the same expressions flit across her face was almost unnerving. Oh, how I wish I had seen this adaptation first. Because to constantly remind me of the atrocity that was the 1997 adaptation is a sin. Yet it's a sin that, logically, I shouldn't hold against them because this other adaptation was almost twenty years in the future. But then again I am fickle. Thankfully Jeremy Brett is no Charles Dance.

Yet then there's the perfection of Anna Massey as Mrs. Danvers to make you forget your woes. If I were to gather up all the Mrs. Danvers she would win hands down. She is perfection without ever veering too far into the crazy skid. She's not self-immolating like Judith Anderson or the only bright, yet undeniably unhinged, spot in a horrid production like Diana Rigg. She's simply perfection. Because the truth is Mrs. Danvers is a real human, not a caricature, and despite all her actions, they are rooted in her connection and love for Rebecca, no matter how obsessive that love was. I first fell in love with Anna Massey's acting when I watched He Knew He Was Right. This is a pitch perfect adaptation of Anthony Trollope's book that I love so much I even mentioned it to David Tennant that time I met him. Anna Massey stands in the way of a marriage but will break your heart when she relents to the match. After this I started searching out her work and realized I'd seen her for years in everything from Midsomer Murders to The Darling Buds of May. Yet it's the scene in Rebecca's bedroom when she shows it off to the second Mrs. de Winter that she will destroy you with her range. Going from triumph to boasting to melancholy all in the blink of an eye. Grief as restrained madness. Perfection! 

You'd think with all this superb talent that everyone is perfection in the cast. Well, you'd be wrong because there's Jack Favell... Jack is usually the character that is always gotten right even in the worst of productions. But here? Julian Holloway isn't Jack. Not. One. Bit. Jack is a slimy character, a smooth operator who has no moral compass and you could easily see as jumping into bed with his cousin. Therefore he needs to be equally repellent and alluring. Here he's just repellant. He's a "good old boy" who you'd expect to see wandering around the grounds in plus fours! Rebecca wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole! Oddly enough there's a modern equivalent acting today, Rory Kinnear. This Jack IS 100% like all the characters Rory Kinnear played for years. I have spent years bemoaning him being everywhere, especially in National Theatre Live productions. Two years ago I swear he was in every single production so I avoided that season like the plague. But for as much as I dislike him, annoying me to no end with his profuse body of work, he at least has range, and a few productions I actually liked him in. This proto-Kinnear? He has the range of a teaspoon.

There is one thing though, besides giving this version a proper release, that would easily upgrade it in my opinion, and that is if the music were fixed. The score of this adaptation is literally all over the place. At the beginning of the third part for about three minutes I thought they might have finally gotten it right and then it slid back into a mish-mash of styles. You will catch glimpses of Debussy, which might have occasionally worked, especially as it sounds like, according to my brother, that they might have been using "La Mer" which would be appropriate, but then as the happy couple approaches Manderely the music goes all old school cinema. You feel like you're watching an old reel where the dastardly villain is twirling his mustache while he ties the maiden to the tracks and waits for the train to arrive. I assume the train in this musicians mind is Mrs. Danvers, but who knows. It's almost comical in it's appearance. But for how much that music might have been too old school and inappropriate, don't worry, here are some synths thrown in to make it modern or to, I don't know, remind you it's the seventies despite the fact Rebecca doesn't take place in the seventies? Seriously, the music needs an overhaul.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Anna Massey, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, Emilia Fox, He Knew He Was Right, Jeremy Brett, Joanna David, Midsomer Murders, Rebecca, Rory Kinnear, The Pallisers, Upstairs Downstairs