A psychological mystery in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier or Mary Stewart, Marnie is a wonderfully suspenseful and well-written novel. This novel became famous as an Alfred Hitchcock movie in the 1960s, it reads as if Winston Graham had Hitchcock in mind all the way.

You have a sense right from the beginning that there is more to this woman than meets the eye; that she has a past, secrets, issues, that will explain her inability to connect to people and her need to be someone other than herself.

Loads of fun, and even better because I had Lori to help me peel the layers away and made me want to do it SLOWLY.
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paro, paro, ma diverso...grande Hitch ma anche grande Graham ( )

This 1961 psychological novel was the basis for Hitchcock's film of the same name starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. The action of the book takes place in the UK (as opposed to the US in the film). Marnie's success in repeatedly changing her identity and embezzling money seems a tad implausible today, but much more was taken on trust in those days when accepting a job application and giving a new employee responsibility. The ending of the story is more complex than the film, and I thought the last few chapters were actually the least successful, and the very ending a bit abrupt. But it's an interesting exploration of the effect of trauma in early life and an individual's life and actions. ( )

This was an excellent read. It is very dated, couldn't take place in the age of IT, she'd be outed on Facebook in no time. But as a story of its time featuring a young, female con-artist, an unusual heroine. If you are the sort of person who questions everything at every turn, don't read it, watch the film instead, but if you can suspend disbelief and just go with the story, then this is a good, light read. ( )

Marnie is a good-looking young woman who gets jobs under false identities, then robs her employers. She becomes trapped in an unwanted marriage in an attempt to keep the details of her life secret. Psychological suspense let down by a melodramatic ending. ( )