We often don't realize the comparative idiocy of youth until we're older. Awhile ago, we had a new employee in my company. Newly graduated from college, she's only 22. The rest of us, being old, wise, ancient creatures of mid-20 to 30-somethings, looked upon her with contempt. "She's a baby!" we howled. "I was so stupid when I just graduated from college and I thought I knew everything!" To be sure, 10 years from now, we will reflect and look back at our relative stupidity now and say "I was so stupid when I was ___ and I didn't even realize it!"So youth. Youth and the idiocy with which it brings is the fault of this book. Yet I could not stop reading it. The main character, frankly speaking, is a moron. She's 22, and it's not just her age that's to blame for the fact that she's bloody insane. This is a girl who has spent her entire life. Her entire fucking life talking to an imaginary "lover." One whose identity she doesn't know, one who might not even exist. One who is, I shit you not, one of her three cousins. Ok. Let's just overlook the incest for a moment. She comes from a long line of blue-blooded Anglo ancestors whose interbreeding probably make Jamie and Cersei and the state of Alabama (and most of Mississippi) look downright normal. It's also the 70s. I wasn't even born then, so what do I know? Maybe falling in love with ones' cousin was totally the rage then. So let's just pretend we can overlook the whole cousin thing. No. My biggest issue was that she's been talking telepathically with an imaginary friend whom she calls "Lover" (again. Cousin. Ick) for her entire life. “You can’t, out of the blue, ask a second cousin who has given no hint of it: ‘Are you the Ashley who talks to me privately?”And she never once considers that this is abnormal. Again, this is the 70s. Maybe back then that was totally ok, too. Maybe back then you weren't possibly diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to a comfy padded cell and a lifetime of colorful pills if you had dreamt of an imaginary friend long past childhood. So yes. Being the modern woman that I am. Being the wise old woman that I am, I think she's a bloody fucking moron. Allow me to also mention the fact that this idiot spends the entire book deliberating which of the cousins this lover could be, and then ignores the fact that:1. He could have killed her daddy “[He]had driven the hit-and-run car that had knocked Daddy down. [He] had killed my father.”2. He could be *gasp* a complete figment of her imagination “But what are you suggesting?’ I demanded. ‘That it could be some fantasy thing I made up as a child, and now can’t get rid of? I mean, I know that children do invent imaginary friends, but for heaven’s sake, they grow out of that, and it isn’t that, or anything like it! It’s a real relationship, Vicar, I promise you!”No. I didn't accidentally give this book a 4. I liked it a lot. I don't know what to say. It's one of those devastating train wrecks from which you can't tear your eyes. It is an old-school, old-fashioned romance. Gothic. Wildly atmospheric. Keeps you guessing until the end. Mary Stewart writes in the vein of Daphne du Maurier. You have to make excuses for the time and the place. You have to forgive it the faults of its characters because they're not out of place for the day. The love interests in her books are not sensitive types, they are the bad boy sweep-you-off-your-feet type. They are the maddeningly macho types who whisper possessive words to you and somehow make you believe it type.Yeah. I liked it. Despite the heroine's idiocy. Despite her youth. Despite itself. Warning, there is the use (not from the main character) of the n----r word.
Bryony Ashley's father is critically injured by a hit and run driver, and he's only able to live long enough to leave a cryptic warning that she's in danger, the rest of his words seem to make no sense at all. Or do they? Devastated, she returns to her cottage near Ashley Court, the family's ancient estate in England, which cannot be sold or broken up without the approval of all members of the Ashley family. As she tries to sort the puzzle left by her father, Bryony also has a secret of her own to resolve - longer than she can remember she's had a telepathic connection with an unknown "lover" who she believes will reveal himself in the flesh to her when the time is right, and she’s always felt it was her cousin James. Or is it James' younger brother Francis? I promise, you will never guess. Ashley soon finds things amiss at the Court. Small, but valuable items are missing. A mysterious stranger spotted shuffling through church records, and a book of ancient records turns up missing. Who is the Cat her fathered referred to in his last words - the family emblem of the Scottish Wildcat and their motto Touch not the cat? Or is Cat for Cathy, the Underhill's daughter? How is it that the long neglected garden maze is the same design as the family emblem? Is there a secret tied into the pavilion at the center of the maze, and the Ashley ancestor who built it for his lovers? What secret does the book found in the old library with the same family emblem hold? Need the answers? Read it for yourself. Although this one started off a bit slow and it took me forever to see where Stewart was taking the story, once she gets all the lose ends wrapped up they all came together in a spectacular nail-biting finish in the midst of a whopper of a storm with deadly consequences. There are plentiful twists, turns and surprises that will keep you guessing and turning the pages. A definite must for Stewart fans.
What do You think about Touch Not The Cat (2005)?
A reread for me, since I felt the need for something familiar during the readathon. It was one of the first Mary Stewart books I read, and it’s one of the more openly fantastical ones. It’s got the usual set up of the plucky young heroine, a landscape that’s important to her or exotic or otherwise worth describing lovingly, and the man she eventually marries. The fantastical part is the telepathy between them, the bond; Stewart uses it well, creating interesting dilemmas and confrontations.The story of the twins is a little disappointing, because so obvious; we don’t see enough of James’ struggle against his twin to see him as any kind of victim in the situation, and his reaction to Rob and Bryony’s marriage seals that. It gets a little cartoon villain-ish.Rob and Bryony’s relationship is sweet; I suppose that’s a spoiler, but it’d be hard to review this without mentioning that James is not Bryony’s ‘secret friend’. I really didn’t need all the stuff about how Rob is really an Ashley; it makes the plot that much more convoluted, but ends up reinforcing that whole snobbery about the lady of the family not marrying the kitchen boy.Originally posted here.
—Nikki
A re-read from several decades ago, the suspense novels of Mary Stewart never fail to please. In this offering, penned during the groovy 1970's, Stewart was no doubt making Touch Not the Cat more relevant for the time period by adding the gift of telepathy to her heroine Bryony Ashley, and Bryony's mysterious telepathic lover.Who is this mind-melding hero? Is it one of her cousins: Emory, James or Francis Ashley? Admittedly, for most American readers, this is a pretty icky coupling, but apparently Brits are/were ok with it, so I tried my darnest to get over the revulsion by placing myself in any perilous situation where romantic attraction to my own obnoxious cousin Scott would ever cause my heart to palpitate with love....uh, nope, can't do it...But anyway, if you can get past this concept, the plot is pretty good, and has all the suspense you've come to expect if you're a Mary Stewart fan. In fact, Touch Not the Cat really kept me mystified as to the identity of the telepathic lover right up until the reveal...and even then, Stewart didn't make it any easier for the reader to breathe a sigh of relief and mutter, "so that's who it was!".Not quite as strong IMO as some of her earlier suspense books, Touch Not the Cat is still a fun read, and well worth the time. I shouldn't have waited 30 years for a re-read :)
—Hannah
I generally enjoy Mary Stewart's brand of romantic suspense - especially when it's set in English manor homes - but this book was a very slow starter for me. It became very intriguing around the midway point, and then tapered off until a nail-bitingly suspenseful finale. Unfortunately, that was not enough to make me love this book.The voice of this story is very English - although from the 1970s. This book is contemporary with that time, so it makes sense, and I found that aspect to be pretty delightful. The way the characters spoke and carried themselves seemed so quaint and nostalgic somehow, and I appreciated how much this book seemed like a time capsule of that time. Byrony is faced with many dilemmas throughout the narrative, but her approach to dealing with it was so drawn out and lackadaisical that I found the pace to be painfully slow at times. There's more than one mystery brewing though and the focus is much more on the characters involved and how much Byrony really knows about her cousins so I felt this was a well constructed story. The suspense, slow as it was to build, was the best part of the story however, as the romance really fell flat for me. Starting with the fact that some of the characters involved are cousins and it's strange to me that a relationship between them seems fine in the 1970s. There's also the matter of Byrony knowing the person she's in love with all her life because of the Ashley 'gift' and yet she doesn't know his exact identity. Which seems pretty hard to believe. The story's finale really made up for a lot of my dulling interest in the book however, because it was a bit shocking in a way and fraught with danger. Yes, it was somewhat predictable, but I still was eager to know how it would all turn out. However, this was not one of Mary Stewart's best books for me, but a suspense story with an intriguing idea that took a long time to develop.
—Charlene
