Rebecca

Du Maurier commands atmosphere like few others: Manderley is not just a house but a state of mind, and Rebecca's shadow crushes the nameless narrator with near-perfect effectiveness. There is terror, romance, and considerable psychological thriller long before the genre had a name. The narrative voice — insecure, obsessive — stands as one of the great achievements of English suspense. It reads in one sitting and the final image does not leave the mind easily.