In this feature, we ask our Crime Cymru authors to name six things that influenced their life and shaped them as a writer. This week, multi-genre novelist and poet Katherine Stansfield speaks of her admiration for Daphne du Maurier and highlights the importance of her Cornish roots to her writing.

One book

I first read Daphne du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel when I was a teenager and was captivated by the deep sense of unease that runs through the story. Very little actually happens in the plot: a young man seeks to discover if his beloved cousin was murdered by the cousin’s new, devastatingly attractive wife, while at the same time coming under her spell himself. But du Maurier makes every small development seem vitally important and shot through with malice. She’s brilliant at conveying obsession as well as characters who transgress the norms of their community, whether that…