Book review by Tracey
I found this one at the Goodwill, and selected it as I had already found the original, Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. I was unaware that there was a “sequel” to Rebecca, and I was curious about it. Anyway, this story takes up essentially where Rebecca ends.

I don’t know if I have read any other novels by Susan Hill, but this one was published in 1993. Ms. Hill does a momentous job of imitating Daphne Du Maurier’s writing style. I would have to say that if the author hadn’t put her own name on it I wouldn't have been able to tell the two writers apart. This also means that Mrs. deWinter is written in the slow, careful, suspense-building style as the original. Mr. and Mrs. deWinter come home to England after years in exile. They have been trying to escape the scandal of the happenings at Manderly, the deWinter home described in the novel Rebecca. They come home to settle, and find that their old enemies are still waiting in the wings ready to stir up trouble. What happens in the end I cannot say, but I personally have a hard time with the notion that past life events can have such a depressing impact on one’s future; that
life can be so humiliating to the proud that they cannot endure it. It seems a weak link to me.

Tracey.