This is quite good.
Published in 1936, it is set in Cornwall/Devon sometime I think in Victorian England. Weirdly coincidental to read two books set primarily in Launceston in succession.
Jamaica Inn sits somewhere on the middle of Bodmin Moor and the heroine Mary is sent there to stay with her aunt following her mother’s death. The pub is ruled over by the vicious thug Joss Merlyn against whom Mary stands up rather improbably.
It transpires that he runs a crew of wreckers who lure boats onto the rocks on the Cornish coast, kill any survivors and loot the boats. There are two other key men in the book, Jess, Joss’ brother who is a pretty unpleasant guy but wins Mary’s heart and the apparently benign vicar Francis Davey, who is the evil mastermind running the wrecker’s operation.
All a bit far- fetched but quite readable. Lurid chick lit for the 1930’s.
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