Scottish Daily Mail

RETRO READS

- VAL HENNESSY

MY COUSIN RACHEL by Daphne du Maurier (Virago £8.99)

Dark, perplexing, fiendishly mysterious, this great novel is stunningly addictive.

In Cornwall, orphan Philip is raised by his wealthy, adored cousin ambrose. However, on an Italian trip for his health, ambrose falls in love, marries and suddenly dies.

Devastated Philip, his heir, suspects foul play. Were ambrose’s final letters the ravings of a sick man or cries for help? Determined to hate the widow, rachel, when she arrives, Philip becomes entranced.

Is she after his money? Is she a scheming murderess out to poison him, too, with her creepy herbal teas? Or is Philip going off his head?

One thing is certain, you’ll never again look at a laburnum tree without a slight shudder.

THE DUKE’S CHILDREN by Anthony Trollope (Everyman £16.99)

TOFF territory is Trollope’s inspiratio­n. The Duke of Omnium struggles to cope with his three recalcitra­nt adult offspring. Two sons are heavily in debt and his daughter is determined to marry an impecuniou­s (but ex-etonian) commoner.

‘I think that between them my children may well bring me to the grave,’ sighs the Duke.

The action revolves around a diminishin­g collection of interrelat­ed aristos, all irritating the hell out of each other at their frequent gatherings of huntin’, shootin’ and plottin’ to marry off their ghastly offspring into their blue-blooded circle.

Much fun is poked at the disastrous balls, picnics and country house shenanigan­s endured in their rank-obsessed world where ‘an unmarried daughter is a burden too heavy to bear’.

FIRE CHILD by Sally Emerson (Quartet £10)

BOY (pyromaniac) meets girl (nymphomani­ac from age 12). Both hide guilty secrets and are lonely scribblers of hate-fuelled diaries. He burnt down the parental home, she caused deaths. Clearly theirs is a match made in hell.

They meet. Cold eyes gaze into cold eyes. Suddenly it’s all erotic thunder, lightning and lines such as: ‘My body ripples out in ecstasy’ etcetera. Phew!

But as this horribly compelling plot soars towards a cataclysmi­c climax, you do wonder how, with so much sex and skuldugger­y, the diabolical duo find time to write their gripping diaries?

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