Tag Archives: Mary stewart

#BookReview ‘My Brother Michael’ by Mary Stewart #mystery #WW2

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‘Nothing ever happens to me,’ writes Camilla Haven on a postcard at the beginning of My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart. Longing for excitement on her solitary holiday in Greece, the inevitable happens. A case of mistaken identity takes Camilla to Delphi where statues of gods are found around every corner and ghostly lights move at night on the hills of Mount Parnassus. Mary StewartStewart has written a page-turning tale of death, art, handsome Greek gods [alive and stone], caves and smuggling. At the root of it all is what happened on these hills during the Second World War when Greek partisans were fighting the Nazis, and each other. Published in 1959, the story is set fourteen years after the war ended. This is pre-tourism Greece with goatherds on the slopes and donkeys following hillside tracks that have been used for thousands of years at a time, but when war’s mark is still evident daily. This is not a political post-war novel about a trouble, divided country, instead Stewart focuses on the people, their motivations and how history, ancient and recent, should never be forgotten.
Camilla is a cautious character in the first few chapters but as she, and we the readers, are drawn into adventure and mystery, her sense of right and wrong leads her onward towards risk and violence.
What a magical tale of mystery this is by a master storyteller. I read this first in the Seventies and this time around was just as gripped, reading into the night.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS
THE IVY TREE
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
THORNYHOLD
TOUCH NOT THE CAT

If you like this, try these:-
‘THE COLLABORATOR’S DAUGHTER’ BY EVA GLYN
‘THOSE WHO ARE LOVED’ BY VICTORIA HISLOP
‘THE CAMOMILE LAWN’ BY MARY WESLEY

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MY BROTHER MICHAEL by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-789 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Verity Bright

#BookReview ‘The Ivy Tree’ by Mary Stewart #mystery #suspense

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A strange encounter on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland kicks off this mystery of assumed identity and deceit. The premise of The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart reminded me immediately of Josephine Tey’s masterpiece about a fraudulent heir, Brat Farrar and Stewart’s characters refer to the Tey book. Mary StewartDays after a young man mistakes Mary Grey for a local woman who disappeared eight years earlier, Mary sees a strange woman watching her in the Newcastle café where she is waitressing. What follows is a complex plot to secure the fortune and property of an elderly gentleman, his health failing, before he should die. Mary, at the behest of sibling partnership Connor Winslow and Lisa Dermott, will impersonate Annabel Winslow, the woman she so resembles, in order to win the Winslow’s farm Whitescar for Con. Unscrupulous, immoral? Or redressing a wrong perpetuated in a will which needs updating before Matthew Winslow’s imminent death? Throughout the first half of the story, which works up to the false Annabel’s arrival at Whitescar and the hurdles of lies and pretence she must negotiate, I suspected Mary Grey of being the real Annabel. But at the halfway mark in the story, everything changes as new information bursts on the scene. And all set in the glorious summer setting of rural Northumberland, where abundant roses tumble through the hedgerows and a cat named Tommy has kittens.
More a mystery with an odd touch of romance, than a romantic mystery, Stewart has populated the story with edgy unlikeable characters. Apart from Annabel’s grandfather and her young cousin Julie, who was only eleven when Annabel was assumed dead after mysteriously disappearing. Julie’s naïvely-recounted memories of what passed eight years earlier help the reader, and ‘Annabel,’ to grasp the complexities of the Winslow family politics. But as for everyone else, I didn’t trust any of them.
The ivy tree of the novel’s title is not of course made of ivy, it’s a large old oak tree now swamped by ivy. ‘Eventually the ivy would kill it. Already, through the tracery of the ivy-stems, some of the oak boughs showed dead, and one great lower limb, long since broken off, had left a gap where rotten wood yawned, in holes deep enough for owls to nest in.’ As the story unfolds, the significance of this tree becomes clearer. Stewart, as always, writes with such a brooding sense of atmosphere, almost acting as an extra character. And she handles the balance of trickery, of information withheld, suspected, hinted and revealed, like a master craftsman.
A story with so many twists it seems the knot will never be untied. But it is, in a final thrilling scene involving the old ivy tree. Another Mary Stewart classic. She makes you feel as if you’re there, watching as the story unfolds around you.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
THORNYHOLD
TOUCH NOT THE CAT
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS

Click the title to read my review of BRAT FARRAR by Josephine Tey.

If you like this, try these:-
‘My Husband the Stranger’ by Rebecca Done
‘Wolf Winter’ by Cecilia Ekback
‘Little Deaths’ by Emma Flint

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE IVY TREE by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5Sc via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Thornyhold’ by Mary Stewart #romance #mystery

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Browsing at the library I came upon a Mary Stewart novel I hadn’t heard of. Thornyhold. Of course, I couldn’t resist picking it up and putting it on top of my To-Read pile. It’s a small novel, only 212 pages and I read it in two sittings. Published in 1988, Thornyhold is one of Stewart’s last – her first was Madam, Will You Talk? in 1955 – and this is very different from the romantic suspense stories for which she is known and loved. Mary Stewart Gilly Ramsey inherits Thornyhold, a remote cottage, from her mysterious godmother Geillis. Now alone after the recent death of her father, Gilly plans to start a new life at Thornyhold. As she explores the cottage – its mysterious attic which doubles as a pigeon loft, a still room for drying herbs and making herbal cures – she learns more about her benefactor. There are more questions than answers. As a child, Gilly had always found Geillis enigmatic; she appeared when Gilly seemed to need her, one time producing a crystal ball from her bag. Now, as she meets her new neighbours, Gilly learns the history of the house and her godmother’s reputation as a herbal healer. But was she more, a witch or wise woman? Although odd dreams, a barking dog and strange messages sent by carrier pigeon, unsettle her, Gilly has an inner belief that she belongs at Thornyhold. Nothing will make her leave.
Having recently a read a lot of contemporary novels with dense repetitive emotional description and complicated plots, reading Thornyhold felt like drinking a tall glass of water when desperately thirsty. Such a wonderful turn of phrase, clever and thoughtful, but accurate and never over-done. Gilly meets a neighbour who she describes as having smooth rosy cheeks and ‘the wrong red too thick on a small mouth,’ and I know exactly what she means.
Beautifully written, not a word out of place, not a character too many. Delightful. An instant favourite.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
MY BROTHER MICHAEL
THE IVY TREE
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
TOUCH NOT THE CAT

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Diabolical Bones’ by Bella Ellis
‘Ferney’ by James Long
‘The Good People’ by Hannah Kent

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THORNYHOLD by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5Rn via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘This Rough Magic’ by Mary Stewart #romance #suspense

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Until re-visiting Mary Stewart again I’d forgotten the exoticism of her settings and so, inspired by The Gabriel Hounds which is set in Lebanon, I quickly moved onto This Rough Magic. I remember being enchanted by this book when I read it as a teenager. The magic of Corfu, the beating heat, the warm dust, the blue sky. My memories didn’t let me down. Mary StewartSet in Greece, this is another fantastic romantic suspense novel from Mary Stewart which to be honest is more adventure story than romance. Difficult to believe it was first published in 1964 [here’s the cover of the Hodder & Stoughton first edition]. More moody and atmospheric than the disappointingly generic front cover of the current edition. Mary StewartWhen young actress Lucy Waring goes to stay with her sister Phyl in Corfu, she meets the neighbour living at the adjacent mysterious Castello dei Fiori. None other than Shakespearean master Sir Julian Gale. Although Sir Julian is flattering, sharing his theory that Shakespeare based The Tempest on Corfu and that Prospero’s cave is nearby, his son Max is cool and unwelcoming. So later, when Lucy is on the nearby beach where she meets a tame local dolphin, shots ring out that nearly hit her, she automatically suspects Max.
This is a story of passing encounters, mysterious deaths, enigmatic locals with classical Greek names, a somewhat naïve but plucky heroine and a Shakespearean ‘sir’ who in my mind I pictured as Sir Ralph Richardson.
Read it for the sultry heat, the mysterious Castello… and the dolphin. Re-reading it is like meeting an old friend.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
MY BROTHER MICHAEL
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS
THE IVY TREE
THORNYHOLD
TOUCH NOT THE CAT

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Forgotten Sister’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Animals at Lockwood Manor’ by Jane Healey
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THIS ROUGH MAGIC by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5A2 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Gabriel Hounds’ by Mary Stewart #mystery #suspense

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A rollicking, sensuous tale set at a rundown Lebanese palace involving two cousins, an eccentric great-aunt, various chases and subterfuge, The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart is a classic 20th century suspense romance. The hounds of the title are a legend saying that when the dogs run howling around the palace of Dar Ibrahim in the gloriously-named Adonis Valley, death is sure to follow. Mary Stewart Christy Mansel leaves her guided tour of Syria and Lebanon to visit the palace of her Great-Aunt Harriet. When she arrives at the beguiling, almost Gothic building, she finds a staff who are incommunicative and protective of their boss who prefers her solitude and will not receive visitors until dark. Waiting to hear if her relative will see her, Christy sets out to explore the passages, gardens, walls and secret places, trying to ignore the glares of the servants and avoid the saluki hounds she has been warned are guard dogs and aggressive to strangers.
The descriptions of Lebanon make the story come alive as do the stories of legends researched by the great-aunt’s assistant, John Lethman. Published in 1967, the story develops slowly compared with current publishing tastes but the settings are luscious and the pace picks up in the second half when the vague suspicions of Christy and her cousin Charles that all at Dar Ibrahim is not as it seems begin to feel real.
This is Beirut and the Lebanon pre-Civil War, pre-the kidnappings of John McCarthy and Brian Keenan, pre-Isis. In creating the character of Great-Aunt Harriet and Dar Ibrahim, Stewart acknowledges her debt to the real life of Lady Hester Stanhope, 19th century traveller and adventurer. ‘She finally seems to have believed in her own mystical destiny as Queen of the East who would one day ride crowned into Jerusalem at the side of the new Messiah.’
I read Mary Stewart as a teenager and remember my delight at the romantic, other-worldly stories in destinations so far from my own life. The Gabriel Hounds is definitely worth re-visiting.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
MY BROTHER MICHAEL
THE IVY TREE
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
THORNYHOLD
TOUCH NOT THE CAT

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano
‘The Forgotten Sister’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Silent Companions’ by Laura Purcell

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE GABRIEL HOUNDS by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5s3 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Touch Not The Cat’ by Mary Stewart #romance #suspense

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Published in 1976 – around the time I was borrowing my mother’s copies of Mary Stewart’s The Moon-Spinners and My Brother Michael and reading them voraciously – I had never read Touch Not the Cat until now. Like all Stewart’s novels, there is adventure and romance with a slice of the supernatural. I can’t think of any other novels like them. The Ashley family in Touch Not the Cat own Ashley Court and have an unusual gift running through the generations: they are telepathic with each other. Mary Stewart Narrator Bryony is working at a hotel in Madeira when she receives a telepathic message from her anonymous ‘lover’ to go to her father who is staying at a clinic in Germany. When Bryony arrives her father is dead, killed in a hit-and-run road accident. His last words to a friend, who wrote them down verbatim, are a warning to Bryony. ‘Tell Bryony. The cat, it’s in the cat on the pavement. The map. The letter. In the brook. Tell Bryony. My little Bryony to be careful. Danger.’ She returns home to Ashley Court in England to look for the answers but finds surprises and danger. I found the beginning an odd introduction to the Ashley family, the house, the history, coupled with a diary excerpt at the end of each chapter, dating from the nineteenth century. The significance of this becomes clear later, but for a long while I read it without getting a lot from it. There are a lot of mysteries, lies and contradictions to unravel. Even Bryony is not certain of the identity of her telepathic lover, though she knows it must be a blood relative so guesses it is one of her three cousins; twins Ellory and James, or their younger brother Francis. As Bryony unravels the meaning of her father’s warning, she realises the twins are not beyond committing murder in order to steal her inheritance. Could one of them be her telepathic lover?
The title of the novel is an old Scottish motto which Stewart gives to the fictional Ashley family. The cat is relevant but I didn’t guess the significance until the very end. A well-written novel; old-fashioned in that it starts slowly and builds gradually, but deserves patience. It includes gothic features such as churchyard scenes, shadowy figures, storm and flooding; which Bryony mocks, ‘Robed nuns and ancient houses and secret passages, the paraphernalia that Jane Austen had laughed at in Northanger Abbey.’ An unusual romantic mystery that makes me want to re-read all Stewart’s books, including the Arthurian series.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of other Mary Stewart novels:-
MY BROTHER MICHAEL
THE IVY TREE
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
THORNYHOLD

If you like this, try these:-
‘The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde’ by Eve Chase
‘The Wicked Cometh’ by Laura Carlin
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview TOUCH NOT THE CAT by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Vc via @SandraDanby