Daphne Du Maurier, detective

Justine Picardie already has plenty of acclaim in the literary world as author of several non-fiction works and of one novel, and more Du Maurier-specific, wrote introductions to the Virago editions The King�s General and The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte. So it makes sense that for her next book, she’d make Du Maurier her heroine – in a literary detective story.

The Bookseller reports that Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsbury bought world rights to Picardie’s novel DAPHNE through Ed Victor, with publication plans for late 2007 or early 2008. Du Maurier’s researches into Branwell Bronte’s life are at the heart of the book, which begins when the fictional Du Maurier enters into a correspondence with a Bronte scholar, Alex

Symington, and becomes absorbed in a world of “obsession and

possession; of stolen manuscripts and forged signatures; of love lost,

and love found,” as the pitch reads.

I’m still not sure what to make of it, but Picardie has enough background to make the idea work. And better to go for a POSSESSION-type story than, I dunno, making her a spy….