Although I liked this book very much, as did everyone but one person in my book club, Daphne du Maurier did not outshine herself, i.e., her book REBECCA, which she wrote in 1938, is better than MY COUSIN RACHEL, which she wrote many years later, in 1951.

This story is told in first person by Philip, who is first concerned for his sick cousin Ambrose and his mistreatment by the woman he married, another cousin, Rachel. Twenty-four-year-old Philip hates Rachel, sight unseen. But after his cousin dies, Philip quickly and immaturely falls in love with her and gives her everything he inherited from Ambrose in spite of Ambrose's letters of discontent.

Throughout MY COUSIN RACHEL are displays of Philip's immature pining after Rachel and Rachel's suspect behavior. Suspicions fill this book and even end it. Different readers have different understandings of it.