Daphne du Maurier is one of my favourite authors, so when I saw a cheap deal for The Scapegoat on Audible I snapped it up. The premise of The Scapegoat differs from du Maurier's other books as it strays away from focusing on a vulnerable young heroine, to two men. However, strong gothic themes, drama, mystery and core ideas surrounding identity are very much present in The Scapegoat as they are in Du Maurier's other classics like Rebecca and Jamaica Inn.

One of the things that du Maurier excels at is her character creation and focus on character identity. This book really plays with this idea of identity and is a little bit freaky. Two men, Jean and John meet in France and realise they are identical in every way (except for personality). They are unable to pass up the opportunity of spending a night getting to know each other and it descends into drunken debauchery. John wakes up, however, in a hotel room to find that Jean has fled and taken all of his things. John is then thrown into the life of Jean- who is facing his business collapsing, a sister who hates him, a drug addicted mother, a eccentric brother and sister-in-law, a pious daughter and a despairing wife. A very mixed bag of characters that drives this story. The plot is focused upon John taking over the life of Jean and delving into the shady past of Jean-de-Gaye.

I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the menial life of Jean-de-Gaye could be when you throw in the twist of an identical person having to come to grips with the life of another. It's a very interesting premise as I'm sure we've all wondered if we have a doppelganger out there and what would happen if we met them.

I would say that du Maurier creates some very unlikable characters in this - particularly Jean-de-Gaye himself. He's a smug, self-centered and rather egotistical man from what I read of him. However, I think the point of many of her books is not for you to like the characters but to delve into the human psyche - which is something I really enjoy.

The ending for me let this book down as I thought it was rather anti-climatic and not as enjoyable as du Maurier's other books. I did still really enjoy listening to this book, and I think the audible narration helped me to get into this book much more than I would have, had I read the book. I think for me this is a good novel, but not a timeless classic of du Maurier's that I'll return to. For anyone interested in mystery, doppelgangers and identity, I would recommend as a break from more modern literature. However, if you haven't read du Maurier's work I would start with Rebecca or Jamaica Inn.