By Kate Carlisle, author of Little Black Book
Kate Carlisle is the New York Times bestselling author of two ongoing series: the Bibliophile Mysteries featuring San Francisco bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright, whose rare book restoration skills uncover old secrets, treachery and murder; and the Fixer-Upper Mysteries (as seen on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), featuring Shannon Hammer, a home contractor who discovers not only skeletons in her neighbors’ closets, but murder victims, too
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
The first line of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and one of the most evocative opening lines of all time, in my opinion. I’m a huge fan of Du Maurier. A great honor of my career was winning the Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. So when I sat down to write the latest Bibliophile Mystery, Little Black Book, I was eager to feature Rebecca as the rare book around which the mystery unfolds.
In case you’re not familiar, my heroine, Brooklyn Wainwright, is a world-class bookbinder who has an unfortunate habit of stumbling across dead bodies. And the murder victims always have some connection to a rare and precious first edition in Brooklyn’s care.
One of my favorite parts of the writing process is the research. In fact, I have to be careful not to go so far down the research rabbit hole that I neglect to, ahem, write the book. It’s just so fun and captivating to dive into the history of a book and its author. Little tidbits will make it into the final manuscript, though far from everything I’ve learned. So I thought I’d share a bit of what I learned with you today.
7 Fascinating Facts about Daphne Du Maurier and Rebecca
1. The main character, who narrates the story, is never named. I knew this before starting my research, of course, but I’m including it here because wow. How incredible to write a whole book and cleverly manage not to name your main character. From the reader’s perspective, it’s terribly unsettling, which adds to the foreboding mood.
2. The book was inspired by Du Maurier’s own feelings of jealousy toward her husband’s glamorous ex-fiancee.
3. Du Maurier turned in her manuscript in April of 1938, and the book was published a mere four months later. Perhaps this explains why the first edition had such an unassuming cover. (Hence the title of my own book, Little Black Book.)
4. Rebecca has never gone out of print. Never. Gone. Out. Of. Print.
5. Less than two years after the book’s release (August 1938 to April 1940), Alfred Hitchcock’s film version was released, which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Just imagine how little time the screenwriter had to do a treatment! I believe not much time was needed because the story was already pretty perfect and very visual.
6. Du Maurier was 31 years old when Rebecca was published. She enjoyed over 50 years of royalties on a book which took her four months to write (not including the 15,000 words she wrote and destroyed before starting over).
7. Du Maurier’s grandfather, George Du Maurier, created the character Svengali. Can a dark imagination be a genetic trait???
Share an interesting fact about one of your favorite authors!
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ABOUT LITTLE BLACK BOOK
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 that 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 some complications from her past are 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….
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