This is one of Georgette Heyer's last novels, written in the 1970s.. when Heyer was in poorer health and writing less. She tried her hand at a Gothic novel, as these became quite popular in the 70s. The style of Gothic novel was usually set in the English countryside, in a large country house or castle. Like Rebecca, it tended to be about a young impoverished but well bred girl who comes to a house either as a governess or as the wife of the owner, and who finds the place sinister, isolated and scary.
Victoria Holt wrote several of these, (this was Eleanor Hibberts pseudonym, the author best known as Jean Plaidy) and they were usually about a young wife who becomes scared of her distant and forbidding husband and discovers that there is some frightening secret in his past. Terrifying things happen and she begins to believe that her husband may be trying to kill her or that he has killed a previous wife or mistress.
Heyer was a more comedic writer and the Gothic wasn't really her style but while many fans dislike it, I enjoy Cousin Kate. It starts with the arrival of Kate Malvern, a young English girl of good birth but no money, in London. Kate has become a governess on the death of her father, and has been dismissed from her job because her employer's brother in law tried to kiss her. She is a very pretty girl, and has had trouble finding work because her youth and good looks make employers wary of her.
Kate goes to London to find refuge with her old nurse, Sarah, who has married a man with a modest but successful carrier's business. She loves her nurse and grows fond of Sarah's new family, the Nidds, who run the business... but when she tries to find a new genteel job, she has no luck.
End Part I.
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