Jamaica Inn (1936) is an early novel by Daphne du Maurier, the famed writer of Rebecca. I've read books by du Maurier before, The Birds and Other Stories and Don't Look Now and Other Stories, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed but I had yet to read a novel by her. Jamaica Inn reads like a Bronte novel. Our protagonist, Mary, loses her mother and is sent away to live with her aunt in Jamaica Inn, a Cornish inn. However, strange things are going on in Jamaica Inn. There hasn't been a guest in months, stage coaches gallop passed, and many locals fear even talking about the place. It's quite hard to believe that this novel wasn't written in the 19th century. Du Maurier writes with such authority and authenticity that, in many scenes, it out Brontes the Brontes. I'm glad I read this before Rebecca because I've heard literally so many amazing things about that novel that I fear every other du Maurier novel that I read after it will be unfairly compared. Thankfully my edition of Jamaica Inn is actually part of a bind-up which also includes Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, and My Cousin Rachel which is basically block of literary cocaine. Lucky me.