I am looking for the title and author of a book I read several years
ago.  It was about a young man who inadvertantly killed a young woman
in a boat.  There were no witnesses and the crime was not discovered,
but the young man was beseiged with the guilt of his crime.  I cannot
find the author or the title.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 18 Dec 2003 12:36 PST

What's your best guess of the year or range of years in which you read the book?

Was it a paperback or hard-cover? 

How would you describe the intended audience of the book?  Was it "teen" fiction?

Do remember anything about how the girl was killed in the boat?  Drowning?

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 18 Dec 2003 12:52 PST

Also, do you remember any other details from the plot?  Do you
remember how it ended?

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Clarification of Question by ellenlee-ga on 19 Dec 2003 15:28 PST

I believe the setting of the book may have been in the early 1900's. 
It was a paperback, I think. The audience was adult.  The girl in the
book was drowned, in fact, the drowning was the horrific part of the
story that caused the young man such guilt and horrible memories.  I
felt certain the author was Thomas Hardy, but I searched all of his
books on Amazon and cannot find anything that has a similar plot.  I
do not remember anything else from the plot except that the young man
was caught up in first concealing the accident and later confessing
it.  His realization of the need to behave honorable played a large
part in his decision to confess the crime as well as the need to clear
his conscience.

This sounds a bit like Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy,"
although, in that story, the girl's drowning is not accidental.

It also sounds a bit like Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel "Rebecca"
(later turned into a classic Hitchcock movie).  The young bride - -
Rebecca --  was shot by her husband in anger.  He put here in her
sailboat, which he then sank, with her body stowed inside.  He later
confessed the killing to his second wife. In a surprise plot twist,
Rebcecca's death was ruled a suicide and the couple lives happily
(well, not quite) ever after.  Here is a link to a plot summary:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/rebecca/summary.html

This sounds like Emile Zola`s "Therese Raquain" ( Not sure of the
spelling of the title)  except the drowning wasn`t accidental.