Her mother's dying request takes Mary Yellan on a sad journey across the bleak moorland of Cornwall to reach Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. With the coachman's warning echoing in her memory, Mary arrives at a dismal place to find Patience a changed woman, cowering from her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn.

Affected by the Inn's brooding power, Mary is thwarted in her attention to reform her aunt, and unwillingly drawn into the dark deeds of Joss and his accomplices. And, as she struggles with events beyond her control, Mary is further thrown by her feelings for a man she dare not trust..

Launched during the Bon-ween meeting!

Picked up at the York BookCrossing meetup

Only 6/10 for a classic Gothic romance with added brooding smugglers? Well, Daphne du Maurier's reputation is hardly going to suffer because a middle-aged woman in Yorkshire didn't enjoy one of her books as much as she was hoping to, so I don't feel bad.

I saw the famously mumbly BBC adaptation of this a few years ago and now that I've read the book I can see that it was woefully miscast. However, the weaknesses in the story are unfortunately mostly down to the source material. The descriptive passages are atmospheric and largely well-done; it's the character motivations which don't ring true. Mary fails to report her uncle's nefarious activities early on, when she has the run of the place and could easily have got out to speak to the magistrate, because she's worried about what will happen to her aunt. Yet when she finally decides to speak out, she gives almost no thought for the consequences. She also performs a real volte face at the end when, having spent several pages experiencing a bone-deep longing to go home, she decides to go off with her uncle's brother instead, thus probably making exactly the same mistake her aunt made by choosing the wrong man.

Perhaps it's a product of its time, but I found the irritating portrayal of women as being essentially weak and in thrall to charismatic men really hard to overlook. I felt much the same way about Rebecca. Grow a spine, du Maurier ladies...

Left in the mini library next to the tearoom.