Shayne's review
The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart
The only Stewart books I'd read before were her "Merlin" series (which I own and love). This one (published in 1961)was written as a contemporary novel, but is now something of a period piece. Ii was immediately struck by how much the protagonist smokes! More subtly, the attitudes to the "place" of men and women, and the power [im:]balances between them, make it impossible to forget that this is a novel of an earlier time.
There are plot elements that I can't refer to without revealing major spoilers, so I won't. But I found this a gripping story, with well-drawn characters and an intriguing plot. Towards the end, the tension is ramped up to the point that I almost became breathless at times.
The setting (near Hadrian's Wall) is attractively described, and Stewart manages to slip in some geology and Roman history without ever remotely overdoing it. She also appears to know a lot about horses; I enjoyed the horsey bits very much.
Whether or not the "mys...more
There are plot elements that I can't refer to without revealing major spoilers, so I won't. But I found this a gripping story, with well-drawn characters and an intriguing plot. Towards the end, the tension is ramped up to the point that I almost became breathless at times.
The setting (near Hadrian's Wall) is attractively described, and Stewart manages to slip in some geology and Roman history without ever remotely overdoing it. She also appears to know a lot about horses; I enjoyed the horsey bits very much.
Whether or not the "mys...more
