The Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier

By chance, two men – one English, the other French – meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking – until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupor. It is to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman’s shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles – as owner of a château, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family and master of nothing.

Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.