Mary Stewart (1916-2014) was the author of 20 novels, including Madam, Will You Talk, the Merlin trilogy, The Ivy Tree, The Moon-Spinners, My Brother Michael, Nine Coaches Waiting, and Thornyhold.
Charity Selborne, a lovely war widow, and her irreverent artist friend, Louise Cray, arrive in the South of France expecting a conventional holiday. The vistas of Provence delight them, and Charity is pleased to make her first conquest, a young man of 13 who is having trouble with his dog. He introduces himself and Charity is charmed—until she senses a terrible maturity behind his grave eyes and shortly hears the rumors about his father. From this point on, the tension mounts steadily until it reaches the breaking point, while the thirsty summer heat, the noise of cicadas, and the dust of country roads all contribute to the superb realism of Mary Stewart’s very first novel. Combining her keen wit, zest for adventure, and eye for the details that make her characters interesting and memorable, Mary Stewart leads the reader on a swift, breathless chase that turns this quiet story into a masterpiece of romantic suspense.
A governess in a French château encounters an apparent plot against her young charge's life in this unforgettably haunting and beautifully written suspense novel. When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream. But a palpable terror is crouching in the shadows. Philippe's uncle, Leon de Valmy, is the epitome of charm, yet dynamic and arrogant—his paralysis little hindrance as he moves noiselessly in his wheelchair from room to room. Only his son Raoul, a handsome, sardonic man who drives himself and his car with equally reckless abandon, seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma—though irresistibly attracted to him, she senses some dark twist in his nature. When an accident deep in the woods nearly kills Linda's innocent charge, she begins to wonder if someone has deadly plans for the young count.
Rose Cottage, a tiny thatched dwelling in an idyllic English country setting, would appear the picture of tranquility to any passersby. But when Kate Herrick returns to her childhood home to retrieve some family papers in the summer of 1947, she uncovers a web of intrigue as tangled as the rambling roses in its garden. The papers are missing. The village is alive with gossip. Did her elderly neighbors, suspected of being witches, really see nighttime prowlers and ghosts in the cottage garden? Kate's search for the truth brings her together with many childhood friends and neighbors and leads her down a trail of family bitterness, jealousy, and revenge. She ends up discovering a long-hidden secret that will change her life dramatically—along with romance in a place she least expects. First published in 1997 and a major bestseller, Rose Cottage is, to date, the last and most mature novel from one of Britain's greatest writers.
Mary Grey had come from Canada to the land of her forebears: Northumberland. As she savored the ordered, spare beauty of England’s northern fells, the silence was shattered by the shout of a single name: “Annabel!” And there stood one of the angriest, most threatening young men Mary had ever seen. His name was Connor Winslow, and Mary quickly discovered that he thought she was his cousin—a girl supposedly dead these past eight years. Alive, she would be heiress to an inheritance Connor was determined to have for himself. This remarkably atmospheric novel is one of bestselling-author Mary Stewart’s richest, most tantalizing, and most surprising efforts, proving her a rare master of the genre.
Nicola Ferris, impetuous, attractive, and on holiday from the British Embassy in Athens, arrives in Crete a day ahead of schedule and discovers adventure and romance. Blithely savoring the wild beauty of the countryside, she stumbles across an assured young Englishman hiding out in the hills who is less than pleased to have been found. Before long, events begin to spiral in an alarmingly perilous fashion, leading to a stunning climax among the fishing boats of Agios Georgios Bay. With her keen delineation of character, Mary Stewart once again casts an enviable spell of suspense on readers.
When Lucy comes to Corfu to visit her sister, she is elated to discover that the castello above their villa is being rented to Sir Julian Gale, one of the brightest lights in England's theatrical world. As a minor player in the London theatre herself, Lucy naturally wishes to meet him—that is, until her sister indicates, with uncharacteristic vagueness, that all is not well with Sir Julian and that his composer son discourages visitors, particularly strangers. Yet Lucy has already encountered Sir Julian's son on the morning of her arrival, in a tempestuous run-in that involved the attempted shooting of a friendly dolphin. First published in 1964, this spirited novel will hold Mary Stewart fans breathless as it uncovers a series of mystifying and frightening events, tinging the otherwise sparkling setting of Corfu with dark hues of violence.
First published in 1956, this haunting novel of suspense and romance set in the Scottish Hebrides blends pungent description with sheer terror as only Mary Stewart can. Most visitors to the Isle of Skye are there to climb the jagged peaks of Blaven or fish the many sparkling streams, but Gianetta Brooke came to forget Nicholas Drury—the husband she had painfully divorced. Upon arrival, however, Gianetta realizes that this won’t be a typical vacation when she discovers that Nicholas is numbered among the guests at the small inn. Then, upon the treacherous slopes of Blaven, a murder is committed, and although Gianetta missed the first act of an eerie, unearthly crime, the murderer is set to strike again and again before a thrilling finale that pits Gianetta face-to-face with a madman.
