I often think timing is everything when it comes to books (in some cases anyway). An otherwise well written and well plotted story read at the wrong time, or in the wrong company, (for me) means a missed opportunity. I think that was the case with my first Mary Stewart novel several years ago, The Ivy Tree. It was enjoyable, but. But I read it at the same time as I read the spectacularly wonderful Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. When one book floors you, a follow up book will likely pale in comparison, no matter how good it might be. My Brother Michael didn't suffer any unwelcome comparisons to other books this time around and I found it to be an engaging, suspenseful and entertaining story that I was sorry to turn the last page on--always a good sign. Mary Stewart seems to have a very loyal following from what I can tell, and I can easily see why. Although she is probably best known for her Merlin books, she wrote a number of works that (though I really hate to categorize) I suppose you could call romantic suspense. Her first was published in the mid-1950s and she was particularly active through the next couple of decades, though her most recent book was published in 1997. In the case of Stewart, her books often have exotic settings with plucky, intelligent heroines, and yes, there is an element of romance but it seems to be fairly low key. I'm not sure what it is about suspense/adventure stories written in the mid-twentieth century, but I'm very fond of them. They have a certain attitude or atmosphere about them. Maybe it's the lack of ultra modern day technology and the fact that life was in many ways slower. A mystery may need to be sorted out, but it has to be done without all the clever little tools we have nowadays. And there is a slowness or thoughtfulness to the stories as well. Stewart takes her time unraveling the mystery, which I like.It's Murphy's Law that if you wish for something, you had better be careful as you may just get it. As My Brother Michael opens Camilla Haven, a twenty-something Englishwoman on vacation, sits in a café in Athens writing a letter to a friend lamenting the fact that nothing ever happens to her. Apparently the gods were listening as in walks a dark little man in shabby dungarees with a key in his hand ready to deliver to her an automobile he is sure she ordered. She's Simon's girl, right? The car is for Delphi, to be taken to Monsieur Simon as it is a matter of life and death. It's obviously a case of mistaken identity and miscommunication, but as Camilla had been sorting out her money to go to Delphi, and as she is on a tight budget and driving the car there will allow her to stretch her cash out just a little longer... She does try and find the right owner, but when no one steps forward or seems to know anything about it, she decides it's a favor to drive it there herself.She, of course, gets more than she bargained for in more ways than one. The car proves difficult to manage on the tight, narrow streets and in tiny villages, and when she gets wedged into a shop doorway while trying to reverse (more like back down) from a large truck, a group of locals attempt to direct her out her predicament with amusing results. In the end she's aided by a man who might pass as a local, but is obviously a fellow Englishman--by the name of Lester, Simon Lester. Despite the coincidence in names he didn't order the car but offers to help her try and locate the right Mr. Simon. As he is staying in Delphi also, they travel together in a companionable manner.Camilla has come to Greece after her engagement fell through, though it's probably a lucky escape as her former lover had little faith in her abilities and was all too ready to keep her safely tucked at home. Michael has brought Simon to Delphi. Michael was Simon's older brother who died during the war and is buried in the hills overlooking the city, though the circumstances surrounding his death aren't clear and his last letter home hinted at something mysterious which had happened while he was serving in Greece. Untangling the mystery of the letter and the events that led to Michael's death turn out to be a deadly adventure for Simon and Camilla.The setting really makes this story. It is, in its own way, a sort of Greek tragedy. The rugged countryside peppered with classical ruins and the weight of history creates a vivid backdrop against which the war still reverberates giving an intensity to the events that take place.
I have travelled to Greece by book, and I have been on a grand adventure with a lovely heroine, to celebrate Mary Stewart Reading Week.The story began with a young woman, Camilla Haven, sitting outside a café in Athens, writing a letter to a friend. She had come on holiday alone, after parting company with her fiancé and after the friend who was going to accompany her had an accident, and though she was proud of herself for striking out alone she was a little bored. “Nothing ever happens to me,” she wrote. But something was about to happen. Of course it was!When they arrived in Delphi, Simon and Camilla gradually uncovered the truth, a story with roots in the war, in Greek history, in the local community.In an extraordinary case of mistaken identity Camilla found herself in possession of keys to a car to be delivered to “Monsieur Simon” in Delphi. It was, the deliverer of the keys told her before beating a rapid retreat, “a matter of life and death.” Camilla had no idea where to return the keys, she was intriguded, she was concerned, and she had planned to visit Delphi; and so she decided that she would deliver the car.The narrow twisting roads, and the local drivers, weren’t at all what she was used to, and along the way she found herself needing to be rescued. She was saved by an English schoolteacher. A man named Simon. He knew nothing about the hire car, and he didn’t think he was the man Camilla was looking for, but he was travelling to Delphi too, and so they joined forces. And they got on very well.Simon had come to Greece to find out more about his brother, Michael, who had worked for the British intelligence service during the war had been posted to Greece to help local resistance groups during the German occupation. Michael had died in Greece, and fourteen years later, when his father died, Simon found Michael’s last letter home. And he realised that the tone of the letter and the story that he had been told about his brother’s death didn’t match. He had come to Greece to find out, to try to reconcile the two.And that, of course, was the beginning of a wonderful mystery, that was all the more wonderful because it was so firmly rooted in the war, in Greek history and culture.It took a little time for the story to capture me. At first it seemed a little too “typically Mary Stewart”, the car trip went on just a little too long, and I didn’t like the crisis that brought Camilla and Simon together perpetuated the stereotype that women drivers can’t reverse.But I liked Camilla from the start, and it was lovely to watch her finding her feet and gaining in confidence as she coped with all kinds of things. And I liked Simon, who treated her with courtesy and respect, and whose faith in her was wonderful. Their dialogues were lovely, they read so naturally, and I enjoyed watching their relationship grow. That relationship might have been a nicely understated romance, or it might have been a firm new friendship between two people who had a space in their life that needed filling. I was so pleased that, even at the end, Mary Stewart didn’t offer a definitive answer to that particular question.But it is the setting, so vividly evoked and so beautifully described, that made this story sing. I never doubted that Mary Stewart knew and loved Greece and everything about it. All of her books that I have read bring their settings to life, but none of them prepared me for the wonderful richness and depth that I would find in “My Cousin Michael.”The plot built, slowly and steadily to a dramatic ending. It balanced a natural progression with some unexpected developments so very well. And in the final pages the evil of the villain and the perilous situation that Camilla found herself in were horribly, horribly real. My heart was in my mouth.I’m sure I could pick out little faults if I wanted to. Contrivances, coincidences, that kind of thing. But I don’t want to, because when the story caught me I stayed caught – hook, line and sinker – to the very end. Mary Stewart does what she does very, very well in this book. I don’t particularly like the description “romantic suspense, ” but it does fit, and I can’t think of a better one.I think this might be my favourite of her books that I’ve read, and now I am eager to read the two other novels she set in Greece.
What do You think about My Brother Michael (2001)?
I just eat these like candy. And at the same time I think about the vanished world in which they were written. I've now read three of these semi interchangeable semi gothic romances set in Greece & featuring an impertubable hero and a plucky, determined young Englishwoman. In all, Greece is described lyrically, the Greeks of antiquity are revered, the Greeks of the present are peasants (problematic! But let's not go there.) and there is peril, which is overcome in the 11th hour. And damn - it's a nailbiting 11th hour too. These are just good, solid, stunningly well constructed and written escapist fare with, for us 21st century readers, the added frisson of history - everybody smokes! In some places there are no roads or phones! There's basucally no sex! - and I hope there are more.
—Felicity
"Nothing ever happens to me", Camilla Havens writes to a friend during her vacation in Greece. Camilla temps fate by making this comment and her adventure begins. Almost broke, she is sitting in a restaurant in Athens, trying to figure out how to stretch her meager funds in order to see the oracle city of Delphi, when suddenly a man appears and leaves her the keys to an already-paid-for rental car. He tells her it is a matter of life or death that the car be delivered to Delphi to Simon, and as "Simon's girl" he is leaving it with her. Even though she is not "Simon's girl" --- the person the car is intended for ---- she impulsively and un characteristically takes the keys and drives off with it, fully intending to meet up with Simon and deliver the car to him with her apologies for taking it. She accidentally meets up with Simon, who tells her the car is not for him, but he will help her get to the bottom of the car situation. This is how Camilla is drawn into the tragedy and mystery of Simon's brother Michael's death. In the wild and desolate land surrounding Mount Parnassus, the past and turbulent WW II history of Greece and it's resistance movement against the German occupation, collides with the present. Simon and Camilla encounter treachery, greed, murder, courage, and honor, as the mystery surrounding Michael's death is resurrected through a series of events in which Camilla finds herself fully involved. As with all of Mary Stewart's novels, setting is a character in itself. The descriptions of Delphi, the amphitheater, the village and villagers of Archakova, the wild and harsh countryside lush with wildflowers, the climate and rich history, all transport the reader into Camilla and Simon's world. If this book doesn't make you want to visit Greece, nothing will!
—Judith
Greece! Ancient Greek ruins! References to classical Greek stuff! Greek caves with treasures AND stalactites! I love all that, so on those grounds alone, I gave this book bonus points. It's one of the tighter-written and more suspenseful novels of Stewart's I've read, with tons of gorgeous scenery. Man, that woman could write gorgeous scenery. Why is no one taking me to Greece? I digress. Ah, the swingin' almost-1960s and the Brits therefrom. (1958 technically, I suppose, if brother Michael was killed in 1944 and it's now been 14 years.) It did feel a bit dated that way: the constant cigarette smoking (it's a wonder any of them had the lung strength to walk up a mountain), the mention of chaperones (even if ironically spoken), the mild and no-longer-current slang (I'm told Brits never say "damned" anymore; it's always "bloody"), the somewhat helpless-female status of our heroine. But that also made it more of an escape, and I quite enjoyed the whole ride. Now I have to add Delphi to my already-long list of things I want to see in Greece someday.
—Molly Ringle
