Stormy Petrel – Mary Stewart

My second Mary Stewart and I remain intrigued. This one was first published in 1991. I’m a bit obsessive about when books are published and when they’re set. According to Wikipedia Mary Stewart was born in 1916 which would have made her about 74 when she was writing this so although on the surface the action is early nineties mood wise it feels a decade or two earlier. This is probably only important to me but it plays on my mind and I felt a lot happier when I’d worked out to my own satisfaction ‘when’ I was.

My frame of reference for Mary Stewart is ‘Wildfire at Midnight’ (although on the strength of these two books I’ve bought more) ‘Stormy Petrel’ is quite a different proposition. Rose Fenemore is looking for a bolt hole at the end of term (she’s a Cambridge don, science fiction writer, and minor poet so deserves a holiday albeit a working one), her brother Crispin is looking for some bird watching so they both settle happily on a cottage in the western isles. Rose arrives safely and settles in but Crispin is delayed but the natives seem friendly and she has plenty of writing to do so even a rising storm doesn’t seem like a problem – until that is Rose wakes up to find a strange man in her kitchen closely followed by a second strange man who definitely isn’t who he says he is... (This has actually happened to me – in a student flat, we were woken up at 2am by the sound of hoovering, we knew something was wrong because we rarely hoovered, 3 drunken men from somewhere had managed to open our door and thought a bit of housework was in order. It was disconcerting.)

I digress. Rose isn’t best pleased especially as it becomes clear that things don’t add up and it all becomes a bit menacing. What I particularly liked about ‘Stormy Petrel’ is that instead of a murder and a hero suspected of the crime there’s a bit of suspected smuggling and fraud which feels very believable and makes the romance a bit less worrying. There is also an excellent sub plot about the eventual fate of the island and the question of Rose’s future as a single lady. The other thing I liked about this later book was that instead of a whirlwind entanglement with a swarthy dangerous charmer there’s a slow getting to know a nice geologist.

I can think of no better way of putting it than to say this was a thoroughly nice, thoroughly enjoyable book. It hasn’t changed my life but I’m pretty sure I’ll read it again and the Scottish one is eyeing it up too. The descriptions of the islands scenery and wildlife are really wonderful, the plot maintains an agreeable tension throughout and it’s an excellent comfort read which is just what I’ve been in the mood for, the only question remaining is this – will I have the self control to save some of those unread Stewart’s for my holiday next month?

Wildfire at Midnight - Mary Stewart

I read about Mary Stewart on Lyn’s (I Prefer Reading) blog a couple of weeks ago and still can’t quite believe I’d never come across her before - what with her being a bestselling author for decades and all (shame on me). It’s especially mystifying (to me personally and presumably of no interest at all to anyone else) because I would have loved and devoured these books in my teens – there’s something of the Georgette Heyer’s about them – nothing specific, just an idea that if you like one you’ll probably like the other.

Despite Lyn’s sanction and the general approval of my reading group I was still a bit sceptical (if these were really books I’d love how could I have missed them – especially the Arthurian sequence when I was smitten by all things Camelot at 14?) I spent some time scouring amazon but still wasn’t entirely convinced but did find a couple set in Scotland so I thought I’d be cheeky and ask Hodder if they would let me have a copy. A very nice publicity lady said yes and I’m quite relieved that I can say how much I liked the two she sent.

‘Wildfire at Midnight’ was first of the blocks. Written in 1956 at has the feel of a period piece but in the best possible way. The heroine, Gianetta, has returned to work as a mannequin after a short lived marriage and unpleasant divorce but she’s been overdoing it for a while and her boss thinks she deserves a holiday. It’s just about coronation day and Gianetta decides to leave the London crowds behind and head for the highlands. She finds herself in a hotel on Skye with an assembly of suspicious characters and a sense of unease – it seems there’s been a rather unpleasant murder in the hills and all the guests are suspects – including her ex husband.

As murder mysteries go it’s not perfect. Stewart is brilliant at building tension and creating an atmosphere of paranoia and distrust but I’m not sure how interested she was in who actually committed the crime or why. The romance provided isn’t the totally traditional type either – Gianetta is reconciled with her straying husband (He cheats on her, she thinks he might be a serial killer – what would a marriage councillor make of them?) but despite their differences it rings true although I’m not sure what happy ever after would be like for such a couple. In fact the book is full of unhappy or imperfect marriages which was one of the things I liked about it, too much happiness makes me cynical after a while, whereas a bit of old fashioned misery makes me hope for the best.

But what really sold me on this book was the humour – plenty of decent one liners and an impression that Stewart was having plenty of fun with her writing. I really couldn’t fail to enjoy a book that starts like this:

“In the first place, I suppose, it was my parents’ fault for giving me a silly name like Gianetta. It is a pretty enough name in itself, but it conjures up pictures of delectable and slightly overblown ladies in Titian’s less respectable canvases, and though I admit I have the sort of colouring that might have interested that Venetian master, I happen to be the rather inhibited product of an English country rectory.”

Hodder have just reissued a whole set of Stewarts which are both attractive to look at and on a 3 for the price of 2 offer at Waterstone’s where I plan to get some more tomorrow.