1962; mystery/thriller or romantic suspense. Nicola Ferris, on holiday
from her job at the British Embassy in Athens, has been looking
forward to getting away from it all in an obscure corner of Crete. But
a day of random wandering brings her into contact with two men, one of
them badly injured.
I've read all the Stewarts before, but some of them are more
memorable than others; this had left very little distinct impression
on me, and I think it's because it sometimes feels like a bit of a
washed-out copy of My Brother Michael. That had the ruins of Delphi;
this has a single Byzantine church. That had treachery echoing back to
the war; this has a more recent and tawdry betrayal. Each of them has
a fight between the chief villain and the hero as a climactic scene,
with heroine as onlooker, though here it's played almost for laughs.
Nicola has rather less in the way of distinctive personality than
Camilla Haven did, though she does have the advantage of being able to
speak and understand Greek.
Even so, there's good stuff here. Nicola reckons the injured man, Mark
Langley, won't last long without help, and provides it, ending up
spending the night in his shelter to keep him warm. The next day, he
neatly cuts her out of whatever adventure he might have been involved
in, and she carries on down to the village where she was planning to
stay, meeting her splendid older cousin and mother-substitute Frances.
(And frankly I could have done with rather more of Frances. She has a
sense of fun, from having seen a bit more of the world, whereas
Nicola comes over as very young sometimes.)
"A heart like warm putty," said Frances resignedly, "and sense to
match. All right, what's his name?"
"How d'you know it's a he?"
"It always is. Besides, I assume it's the one you spent the night
with."
"Oh. Yes."
"Who is he?"
"He's a civil engineer. His name's Mark Langley."
"Ah."
"It isn't 'ah' at all! As a matter of fact," I said, very clearly,
"I rather detest him."
"Oh, God," said Frances, "I knew this would happen one day. No,
don't glare at me, I'm only teasing. Well, go on. You've spent the
night with a detestable engineer called Mark. It makes a rousing
start. Tell all."
It soon becomes clear that several of the important people in the
village, including the hotelier (recently returned from London to be
the local Big Man) and his English barman and chef Tony, have been
mixed up in something involving murder. But Mark's brother Colin is
missing, presumed kidnapped by the bad guys, and he needs to be
located before anyone can risk leaving to fetch the police.
Nicola, having shown impressive levels of determination in nursing
Mark against his will, is perhaps a bit too ready to let herself be
shut out of the adventure, compared with some earlier Stewart
heroines; but of course it doesn't take, and soon she's in it up to
her neck. The romance is very low-key, with occasional mentions that
Nicola is falling for Mark when he does something particularly heroic;
but there's no particular sign of a growing affection, rather than a
simple appreciation of a pretty and helpful girl, on Mark's part.
I wonder whether, after the big narrative trick of The Ivy Tree,
Stewart was deliberately returning to a "safe" story and mode of
telling it. The descriptions are as glorious as ever, in a more open
and sunlit setting than the closed-in valleys of Whitescar.
Overall I'd read My Brother Michael in preference to this, but it's
still a well-constructed if lightweight story.
(There was apparently a 1964 film version with Hayley Mills as "Nicky"
Ferris. I haven't seen it.)
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