“Some people want it all when they should be satisfied with the perfectly reasonable portion of luck they’re allotted,” thinks Marie, on the verge of pushing her own luck once more with another scheme. See, Marie “Danny” Danvers is always on the make. Hustling where she can. Attempting to skim off the top of an art deal she brokered for her boss has seen her run out of town. Now she has to reassess what she sees as the “up-is-down and down-is-up world” of her own making, leading to a fateful meeting with a cynical con man.
Written by Kate Kaminski, I AM DANVERS is a tremendous pulp-style prequel to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Kaminski foregrounds the queer subtext of the original novel and reimagines Mrs. Danvers as a bold LGBTQ anti-heroine for the modern era: a crafty con artist with the instincts and adaptability to thrive in any social milieu.
Kaminski’s driven first-person narration delivers a tightly controlled plot that never becomes needlessly convoluted, each twist and turn steering the reader inexorably on the road to Manderley. Blending hard-boiled noir with lush gothic melodrama, I AM DANVERS is both stylish and tremendous fun.
By updating the story to a contemporary setting, Kaminski is able to skewer the wasteful excesses of celebrity culture while presenting her protagonist as someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Danvers walks a delicate line, at times slipping into outright amorality—though that never did Tom Ripley any harm as a literary icon. Like Ripley Under Ground, I AM DANVERS uses the worlds of high art and forgery as fertile ground for exploring manipulation, greed, and self-invention. And once the narrative moves from the art world into Hollywood, another murky arena primed for exploitation, the novel broadens its satirical bite even further.
Add in romantic obsession, toxic relationships, and sharp sexual politics, and I AM DANVERS emerges as a thoroughly modern gothic noir. Although Kaminksi’s skills will be even more apparent to those who have read the book that inspired it, this is still easy to enjoy as a standalone thriller.
Written by Kate Kaminski, I AM DANVERS proves an innovative prequel-meets-origin-story for the novel Rebecca and the character of Mrs. Danvers.
~ Kent Lane for IndieReader