The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

Excellent story, atrocious dialogue. The last three du Maurier novels I read (this one, My Cousin Rachel, and Frenchman's Creek) all bothered me with how awful the dialogue was, everything everyone said completely lacked character and was utterly flat. The characters in these novels are all fascinating, but the second they open their mouths, they become unbearably dull. This novel is a post-WWII Gothic tale about an Englishman who meets his double (why they look exactly the same is never explained, which was distracting because I kept waiting for an explanation), an impoverished French count with a sinister family past. They switch lives, and the Englishman, John, winds up trying to untangle the horrible emotional and financial mess that the French family is in. The characters, especially the opium-addicted, menacing mother, who may of may not be scheming with her son to murder his wife, are wonderfully sinister and compelling (until they speak). The story is written in wonderful, creepy Gothic style, but the totally unrealistic and dull dialogue really ruined it for me.