Martine Bailey’s first historical novel, An Appetite for Violets, is a gastronomic mystery tale set in 18th century Europe. Written as a book of recipes, it takes a young cook on a murderous trip from England to Italy. Bailey lives in Chester, England and as an amateur cook, won the Merchant Gourmet Recipe Challenge and was a former UK Dessert Champion.At the Huffington Post Bailey tagged six of the best marriage plots in novels, including:
Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du MaurierRead about another entry on the list.
A paid companion besieged by a dead wife Du Maurier's highly charged classic picks up the theme of a lowly-paid domestic and recasts it as a modern Gothic fairytale. The unnamed heroine is naïve, virginal and powerless as she struggles to rise to the status of her aristocratic widower husband, Maxim de Winter. Daunted by the role of mistress ofManderley, she is intimidated by its housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who tries to bully her into suicide. The plot has a twentieth century twist -- now the interloper between the heroine and hero is Maxim's dead wife Rebecca, who casts a malicious curse over the inhabitants of Manderley.
Rebecca appears on Stella Gonet's six best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best conflagrations in literature, Tess Gerritsen's list of five favorite thrillers, Mary Horlock's list of the five best psychos in literature, and Derwent May's critic's chart of top country house books.
My Book, The Movie: An Appetite for Violets.
The Page 69 Test: An Appetite for Violets.
--Marshal Zeringue
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