My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart

4 Stars

Not my favourite of her mysteries, but a good reread nonetheless. 

The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart

4 Stars

I felt the need to dive back into an old faithful this week, and Mary Stewart was the choice and The Gabriel Hounds the book. 

I still love the Mary Stewart mysteries.  Yes, they're somewhat dated, but I'm transported back to the girl in her early teens who gobbled them up like potato chips. 

The heroine of this tale, is Christy Mansell and she's really not the nicest of people.  *LOL*  She's 22 years old and oh so world-weary. She's very typically upperclass British just this side of snobby - oh hell, she's actually a moneyed snob, okay?  But she owns it, saving her from being detestable. 

The hero is her cousin Charles Mansell - they are the children of identical twin brothers, you see.  He's a few years older and knows just about everything there is to know.  Again, he's that long, lanky, languid British young man that was so popular in the late 60s. 

I particularly loved this book because it took place in Lebanon with saluki dogs, ancient palaces, marketplaces and small Arabic villages with small Arabic children.  It was in my Violet Winspear days too, when I first read it, so that primed the pump so to speak.

Anyway, it was a pleasure to dive back into a much-loved book by a much-loved author. (And I must mention my love for the new ebook covers.  They're scrumptious!)

Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart

5 Stars

Last week was such a treat, all of Mary Stewart's books were issued in ebook format and being sold for great prices.  So I splurged and bought 10 of her mysteries (I have all her books in paperback or hardcover) because Lady Mary is one of my all-time faves!  She wrote the mysteries that were my introduction to grown up mysteries.  From Trixie Belden books (which I still adore) to Mary Stewarts.  My favourite of hers is The Moonspinners, but Airs Above the Ground is a close second.

We have horses... and not just any horses, my friends, but the famous Lipizzaner horses.  I can't remember clearly, but I think this was my first Mary Stewart, and the reason I picked it up was because of the horses.  Horse mad is what I was.  Nothing's changed.  *LOL*

Now this book was written in 1965 and I always thought it was set maybe a decade earlier, simply because of its talk of newsreels but I could be wrong and they had those in British movie theatres in the 60s.  Anyway it has all the hallmarks of a book of the time.  But that doesn't bother me.  That was just how things were then and the way that Lady Mary writes her heroine, Vanessa, even when the men are trying to protect her, she has a nice bit of sarcastic aside that lets you know she's fully capable.  I will admit though, I did like the way the hero made the villain regret what he had done to her. 

And then there's Timothy, Tim, the teenager who Vanessa is supposedly chaperoning in a trip to Austria. He goes from a sulky boy to a funny and smart young man and becomes one of my favourite Mary Stewart characters.  He's vital to the solving of the mystery too.

I watched an interview with Mary Stewart a few days ago - it was from 2010, I think - and she spoke of these books as adventures and yeah, I'll buy that.  Romantic suspense, yeah, but definitely adventures.

So this was a very, very enjoyable reread. I'm glad I splurged.  Oh and... check the cover!  All the books have these fabulous covers and I love them. 

30 Day Challenge - Day 28

          

          

Day 28 - Favourite title.

What an odd thing. Okay... let me see... Well I don't know about favourite, but there are titles that I think are beautiful, clever or just plain memorable. David Niven's autobiography for example, The Moon's a Balloon. What a great title!! :)

Other titles that stick out in my mind are quite the mishmash of genres. :) There's Beau Geste by P.C. Wren which just sounds beautiful and is such a clever play on words once you know the story. There is, of course, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Mary Stewart had some lovely, evocative titles for her mysteries, such as Thunder on the Right and Nine Coaches Waiting. Another that always pops into my mind is Still Glides the Stream by D.E. Stevenson, a British romance author. And I cannot finish without noting the GREAT titles of the Travis McGee mysteries. Written by John D. MacDonald, they are all based on colour - A Purple Place for Dying, A Tan and Sandy Silence, The Lonely Silver Rain, Pale Gray for Guilt. So many super titles!!

30 Day Challenge - Day 12

    

   

       

 Day 12 - A book you used to love but don't anymore.

This is a very difficult one. Most books that I have loved over my reading life I still love but for different reasons. Take for instance, the Mary Stewart thrillers. The Moonspinners, The Gabriel Hounds, Nine Coaches Waiting, My Brother, Michael etc... These were some of my favourite books back when I was a young teenager, they introduced me to the world of romance and suspense. I graduated to them from Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew. They were exciting and new and romantic and I loved them to bits.

Today all of these novels are very dated and the heroines anything but modern, but I still love them for their snapshot of a time period and for the nostalgia of where I was in my reading life and the doors they opened for me. The Moonspinners is still one of my favourite books and I still love Mary Stewart.

So I used to love them as only a 14 year old girl can love books and today, 40+ years later, I love them for what they did for that 14 year-old and for the warm, cozy feeling they give me.