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63rd out of 284 books
—
218 voters
Thunder on the Right
by
Mary Stewart
Artist Jennifer Silver has come to the picturesque, secluded Valley of the Storms in the French Pyrenees to meet with a young cousin who is about to enter the convent there -- only to discover that the young woman has died in a dreadful car accident. Or did she?
Lies abound in this strange and frighteningplace, but seeking the truth could lead Jenniferto her own violent dea...more
Lies abound in this strange and frighteningplace, but seeking the truth could lead Jenniferto her own violent dea...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
November 30th 2004
by HarperTorch
(first published 1957)
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I read somewhere that Mary Stewart felt that this was the weakest of her novels, and I must agree (although Airs Above the Ground comes in a close second).
Thunder on the Right starts off strong, but peters out mid-way and never regains traction. While the plot is intriguing: a missing (presumed dead) cousin, and art theft brokered through a French abbey in the Pyrenees, neither storyline is fleshed out to gain full impact. Likewise with the characters. Stephen Masefield is one of the most lacklu...more
Thunder on the Right starts off strong, but peters out mid-way and never regains traction. While the plot is intriguing: a missing (presumed dead) cousin, and art theft brokered through a French abbey in the Pyrenees, neither storyline is fleshed out to gain full impact. Likewise with the characters. Stephen Masefield is one of the most lacklu...more
Originally published on my blog here in May 2000.
Typical of Stewart's thrillers, portraying a young woman uncovering a plot in a glamorous location, Thunder on the Right is perhaps not one of her best novels, but it is still well worth reading.
Jennifer Silver, an English artist, travels to a remote village in the Pyrenees to visit her half-French cousin, who is thinking about retiring to a nunnery in the area. However, when she arrives at the Valle des Orages, Jennifer is told that Gillian is de...more
Typical of Stewart's thrillers, portraying a young woman uncovering a plot in a glamorous location, Thunder on the Right is perhaps not one of her best novels, but it is still well worth reading.
Jennifer Silver, an English artist, travels to a remote village in the Pyrenees to visit her half-French cousin, who is thinking about retiring to a nunnery in the area. However, when she arrives at the Valle des Orages, Jennifer is told that Gillian is de...more
Earlier this year, when Hodder reissued Mary Stewart’s novels in striking new covers, I remembered that I have always meant to try her books. My mother used to love them, and I can remember her bringing them home from the library back in the days when I was still borrowing from the junior shelves.
Now that I have read Thunder on the Right I can understand why all those books came
home.
I met Jennifer, the twenty-two year old daughter of a distinguised Oxford Professor, at a hotel high in the Pyren...more
Now that I have read Thunder on the Right I can understand why all those books came
home.
I met Jennifer, the twenty-two year old daughter of a distinguised Oxford Professor, at a hotel high in the Pyren...more
I've collected Mary Stewart for years but read her for the first time now, with "Thunder On The Right"! It is a treasured experience to listen to a new voice and this author's reputation precedes her. Briefer fiction isn't as fleeting as it appears because Mary's compounded description style is noticeable at once. Some sentences might serve better shortened; or with commas, semi-colons, and colons to divide and clarify heftier observations. However natural vistas leap to life vibrantly with an e...more
I just started this two days ago, and i can hardly put it down! I love Mary Stewart! Ok, now I'm done. I could not put this one down. This has more suspense and action than all the others, and a tiny bit more romance (like one more kiss which equals about two or three total) Anyway, like the others it reminds me of a great old movie with terrific heroines and terribly bad guys and a great plot. It's very damsel in distress, which i dig.
This is the most dreadful trash. But it's perfect to read on a lazy holiday, or when you are ill in bed. Gothic romance, purple prose, naive, feeble but beautiful heroine, strong but sensitive hero, sinister villainess, predictable ending -- it has everything. Set in and around an isolated convent in the Pyrenees in the 1950s, it rather reminded me of a downmarket version of Black Narcissus
Usually Mary Stewart's strength is the way she conveys a sense of place. But this seemed too overblown and...more
Usually Mary Stewart's strength is the way she conveys a sense of place. But this seemed too overblown and...more
This suspense novel is up there with my favorite Mary Stewart books--Thornyhold, Rose Cottage, Nine Coaches Waiting, This Rough Magic, and Madam, Will You Talk? (Stewart wrote many books, so this "top six" list is somewhat selective.) Set in the Pyrenees on the French border with Spain, Thunder on the Right includes a missing (maybe dead?) woman, a mysterious convent populated by secretive characters (the nuns are okay, it's the other people who seem to be hiding something), a long-lost love wh...more
If I stayed up late to finish this one, I'm afraid it wasn't because I couldn't put it down but more because if I did put it down I was not sure I'd be bothered to pick it up again.
It started well enough, at an isolated convent in the Pyrenees, with a search for a missing girl and a vision of a beautiful young man on horseback. And Doňa Francisca, the shady, possibly lesbian, bursar seems a very prmising villain. But somehow it all falls apart.
Part of the trouble was Jenny, the heroine, whose si...more
It started well enough, at an isolated convent in the Pyrenees, with a search for a missing girl and a vision of a beautiful young man on horseback. And Doňa Francisca, the shady, possibly lesbian, bursar seems a very prmising villain. But somehow it all falls apart.
Part of the trouble was Jenny, the heroine, whose si...more
Holy wow! Mary Stewart just keeps outdoing herself! This book was absolutely amazing... I LOVED the setting, the story, and the characters. The plot was truly ingenious. The mystery held me from page one to the very last page. I have to say that Stephen has to be my favorite Mary Stewart character ever! He's not like her typical heroes who are flawlessly good-looking, strong, chiseled, and unbeatable. Stephen was very much vulnerable, but he was more endearing and more realistic. I loved when th...more
This was a lesser liked Mary Stewart novel for me, but still good because I like all her suspense novels (all of which I read as a teenager or young adult). I'd probably give it 3.5 stars. While re-reading this, I realized I remembered very little of it, so now I wonder if I even read it before.
It's told in 3rd person, while I think many of her others are in first, so it was just not as personal and compelling to me. The danger/peril aspect was good. The romantic element didn't do much for me. T...more
It's told in 3rd person, while I think many of her others are in first, so it was just not as personal and compelling to me. The danger/peril aspect was good. The romantic element didn't do much for me. T...more
As a 20-something I read a lot of Mary Stewart and her ilk, but I haven't looked at this gothic-type of mystery since then. I wasn't disappointed this time either. Although the book seems just a bit old-fashioned, there is a swiftness to the story, moving right along and sweeping you along with it. Stewart's vocabulary is a step above many authors (which is a plus to my mind), and the story kept my interest. Murder, kidnapping, stealing, all taking place during a heavy thunderous storm in the mo...more
This was not one of Stewart's better books. It read more like a harlequin romance than a thriller. The over use of flowery speech, excessive and useless descriptions of the most mundane things, and the sappy damsel in distress was a bit over much. The characters were vapid and much of the story was a contradiction unto itself. I couldn't help but question many things such as it was suppose to be the height of the hot season in France/Spain and yet everyone was wearing coats and having fires in f...more
This was a rather meh mystery. The majority of it takes place in a convent in France. The story begins with Jennifer Silver traveling to visit her cousin who is thinking about becoming a nun. Only when Jennifer arrives at the convent, she's told that her cousin has died. After asking several of the nuns' what happened to her cousin, Jennifer becomes convinced that it wasn't her cousin who died. The remainder of the story revolves around Jennifer scampering around the convent and its grounds tryi...more
After realizing that Mary Stewart wrote a King Arthur trilogy (bestsellers in the 1970s and one of the few King Arthur series I have not read) I added her to the author list for My Big Fat Reading Project. Thunder on the Right, a murder mystery set in the south of France, is her third novel. Judging by the quality, I am content to start with it instead of going back to her first books as I usually do.
Jennifer Silver, raised in a comfortable but sheltered home in England, has come to the wild u...more
This story, about a young woman who gets tragic news after going to visit her cousin at a remote convent, was my first experience with Mary Stewart. I liked the book's vintage feel, but wasn't crazy about much else.
The mystery was coincidence-heavy, the heroine didn't stand out much, and the whole thing was padded with long, tedious descriptions. Since the author comes highly recommended and many reviewers seem to think this isn't her best work, I'll try something else by Stewart soon.
The mystery was coincidence-heavy, the heroine didn't stand out much, and the whole thing was padded with long, tedious descriptions. Since the author comes highly recommended and many reviewers seem to think this isn't her best work, I'll try something else by Stewart soon.
Not my favorite Mary Stewart. I absolutely love her books, but this one was a little off--told in the 3rd person for one thing, which isn't usual for Stewart. It was pretty obviously one of her early works, but since I really liked "Madam will you talk" which was her first, I'm a little surprised at this one. Still it was enjoyable and a nail biter. Plus the setting of a mystery novel in a convent was great, a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend it as a first dabbling with Mary Stewart--get to love...more
Definitely not my favorite by Mary Stewart. Usually her plots are so tight, mostly believable, characters engaging. I had a hard time believing a single event in this one, each step seemed to strain credulity a little more than the last. The love story was not unsatisfying, but in general, I'd pick up anything I'd previously read by her over this one.
An entertaining and readable mystery with interesting central characters and a laudable effort on Stewart's part to create an atmospheric and well-paced narrative. Though there is nothing unsatisfying about the book there is ultimately nothing terribly outstanding about it either. It's a nice little piece of genre fiction, a perfect summer vacation read for gothic mystery fans looking for something light and enjoyable.
While Mary Stewart doesn't think much of this book, it still is a fairly well-written and enjoyable one, I found it to be a quick read. Stewart rarely writes in the third person, so in this way the book was an interesting departure. She also describes not only suspense and romance but she has a clear love of landscape as well as flora and fauna.
I could almost picture the French countryside and visualize the Pyrenees mountains. When I read a previous reviewer describe "Thunder On The Right" as tr...more
I could almost picture the French countryside and visualize the Pyrenees mountains. When I read a previous reviewer describe "Thunder On The Right" as tr...more
Not my favourite of Mary Stewart's novels -- I seem to recall reading this was an early one, which might explain why the balance of melodrama felt off, though I loved the self-conscious references to Radcliffe. The whole mystery relied on lots of coincidences and stretches of disbelief, but it was still fun, and I appreciated that the male protagonist had a disability.
The romance gets wrapped up quite quickly -- it's a foregone conclusion from the start, really -- so that source of tension doesn...more
The romance gets wrapped up quite quickly -- it's a foregone conclusion from the start, really -- so that source of tension doesn...more
This novel is the least favorite of the Stewart novels I’ve read. The plot is pretty feeble and the evil characters are comically drawn. There is too much melodrama and not enough backstory to make it as interesting as the others I’ve read. And there is zero character development. Other reviews I’ve read online concede that this is perhaps Stewart’s weakest novel.
That being said, I gobbled it up and did not want to stop. I usually read Mary Stewart in the bath and they are so riveting, this one...more
That being said, I gobbled it up and did not want to stop. I usually read Mary Stewart in the bath and they are so riveting, this one...more
Most of the book consisted of lengthy descriptions of flora, fauna, and landscape. The plot was somewhat contrived. Your basic romantic mystery. What do you expect for a book published in 1957? If you want a quick little light read and don't puke at the overemphasis of scenery and romance, this works.
Jennifer and Stephen uncover mystery and intrigue in a small village in the Pyrenees, focussing around a convent. Jennifer comes to see her cousin Gillian but is met with shocking news - which makes her very suspicious.
This book has high drama, chases, danger, and a low-key romantic thread to break up the tension. I'm not keen on thrillers in general, but Mary Stewart's writing style is such that I find myself gripped and involved without being terrified! I thoroughly enjoyed this and wish it co...more
This book has high drama, chases, danger, and a low-key romantic thread to break up the tension. I'm not keen on thrillers in general, but Mary Stewart's writing style is such that I find myself gripped and involved without being terrified! I thoroughly enjoyed this and wish it co...more
I really loved Mary Stewart's historical and modern romances when I was a teen/twenty something. Combining historical and modern adventure with (clean) romance, they were fun for me to read. They're a bit dated now, but still fun for those who are still idealistically romantic.
One of the few Mary Stewarts I don't really enjoy and don't ever reread. It's not a bad book, and has some lovely character descriptions, but it doesn't compare to the majority of her other works, and I've decided to winnow it out of my bookshelves since I never pick it up.
Kinda 'cool' storyline..very Mary Stewart. I always like her novels. Most of the ones I acquire are in really tiny print..hard to read when getting tired. Mary Stewart books are like 'grown up Nancy Drew books' for me..comfortable, entertaining and very enjoyable.
Was this a great, compelling read? Not really, but it's Mary Stewart for whom I'll forgive anything. She does have a way of setting the time, place, and most of all atmosphere so that you get the most from her novels. This one is a little dated, but with it's added undercurrents of sex (yes, it's alluded to) it makes for a pleasant read.
Jennifer is told that her cousin Gillian is dead, but she is not convinced and investigates.
I don't remember any more about this book, so I'm guessing that this is one of the few Mary Stewart books that I didn't absolutely love.
I don't remember any more about this book, so I'm guessing that this is one of the few Mary Stewart books that I didn't absolutely love.
Another great Mary Stewart which I just recently read. It's got some really genuinely scary stuff in there, along with the usual great setting and romance. Really fun good book.
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/7333940
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/7333940
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Lady Mary Stewart is a popular English novelist, and taught at the school of John Norquay elementary for 30 to 35 years, but has now retired.
She is one of the most widely read fiction writers of our time. The author of twenty novels, a volume of poetry, and three books for...more
More about Mary Stewart...
Lady Mary Stewart is a popular English novelist, and taught at the school of John Norquay elementary for 30 to 35 years, but has now retired.
She is one of the most widely read fiction writers of our time. The author of twenty novels, a volume of poetry, and three books for...more
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12 mai 03:46
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13 mai 04:00