After becoming fed up and disgusted with her life in London society and some of the things that she had done to relieve herself of the dullness of life there, Dona St. Columb makes a sudden departure with her children to her husband’s estate (Navron) in Cornwall. She finds life at Navron very suited to her – where she can sleep as long as she wants, eat whenever it pleases her, and needs to do nothing but enjoy the summer weather all day.

There are rumours of pirates in the neighbourhood, and the local gentry are attempting to capture the captain of the pirate ship. Little does Dona expect that the pirates have been using a creek on her estate as their hiding place, until she stumbles upon them after some suspicions about one of her servants. The Frenchman (the captain of the band of pirates) and Dona strike it off more than well – they both have the need to escape former lives in common – and they quickly fall in love.

While Dona is away on an escapade with the pirates, her husband suddenly appears at Navron. Word of the seriousness of the pirate situation has reached his ears, and he and his friend Rockingham are determined to help the locals capture (and hang) the Frenchman, and no one knows how involved with him Dona has become.

And THAT’S where it starts to get exciting…

I love Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca – it’s one of my favourite books. But it’s the only thing I had ever read of hers. Because of Rebecca (and what I had heard of a few of her other works) I had been expecting something a little bit gothic. The fact that it wasn’t was a surprise – but not an unwelcome one. It was a little bit slow moving at first, but it felt right for the book, like a lazy summer’s day. (After City of Glass, which had a fair amount of action, perhaps that is a very good thing indeed!)

But because it was slow moving, it doesn’t meant that nothing happened. It was a very character-driven book. We learn about Dona and the life she led beforehand; the rumours that fly around England about her, and how sick and tired she is of that life. We learn about the Frenchman, the life he lived before he was a pirate, and why he decided on piracy. We see the relationship build between the two characters somewhat subtly, and how it changes both of them.

But while it is a character-driven book, I’ve found it hard to be anything other than neutral towards the Frenchman. After thinking about why this may be, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s never referred to as anything other than “the Frenchman.” We’re told his name on a few occasions, mainly when we learn about his past; once he became a pirate, his past self pretty much ceased to be, and the new name he chose for himself was “the Frenchman”… which sounds nice and lovely and whatnot, but it makes it very hard to think someone without a name should be one of the two most important people in the book, even though he’s there for some of the most important parts – whether physically there, or just in Dona’s thoughts and motivating her to certain actions.

For me, the highlights of this book were the moments between Dona and her servant William. William was originally a servant of the Frenchman, but started working at Navron when the Frenchman became a pirate. Dona and William hadn’t met before the beginning of the book, but the kinship that they quickly strike up, and the rapport that grows between them is one of the best parts to read about. The relationship they have – how Dona knows she can trust William with everything, the disappointment William feels when he knows he’s not done his full duty to Dona, even their mutual need to keep the Frenchman safe – it felt more developed than the one that Dona has with the Frenchman.

Another highlight: there are parts in this book that are quite amusing. Take, for example, this short passage. Dona has now met the Frenchman twice, and is hearing from her neighbours the perceived threats that pirates have. Dona responds to their warnings in this way:

“Then I will take the greatest possible care of my household. Are they, do you think, cannibals also? My baby son is not yet two.”

Lady Godolphin gave a little shriek of horror, and began fanning herself rapidly.

I love it when characters are sassy and witty. Dona is able to poke fun at her neighbours, make fun of their exaggerated fears about the pirates, without her neighbours realizing what she’s doing. Parts of this book, like that passage, somewhat reminded me of Jane Austen’s wit.

One part of this book, however, made me uneasy. Or rather, my lack of unease made me uneasy. Normally, stories about affairs bother me. I hate stories where someone is cheating on their husband or wife… but I didn’t mind it in this case. Perhaps part of it was that it didn’t feel real – a result of the fact that the Frenchman didn’t come across as important, or perhaps it was because we never really know much of her husband at the beginning of the story, only that Dona had left London because she felt suffocated there. Either way, as a result one half of Dona’s life didn’t feel real, and I’m not sure which one it was. Which, now that I’m thinking about makes A LOT of sense, because one of the things the Frenchman and Dona spoke about was that one half of Dona’s life was a dream.

The Bottom Line: This isn’t the best book I’ve read, and I definitely prefer Rebecca over this… but it would be a good beach or pool-side read. As I mentioned above, it reads like a lazy summer day. Although some of the characters didn’t make much of an impression on me, others (like Dona herself) more than made up for it. I’ll definitely be reading more du Maurier in the future.