Madam, Will You Talk? (by Mary Stewart)

I have been enjoying re-reading my Mary Stewart novels. I first discovered this author when I was a teenager, and borrowed several of her books from my school library. I started acquiring them an adult years later, and was delighted when many of them were re-published in the past ten years. I was given ‘Madam, Will you Talk?’ just over eight years ago, and read it almost immediately. So it was more than time for a re-read.

The story is about a young woman called Charity, who is on holiday in France with her friend Louise. Charity, we quickly discover, was briefly married and then widowed during the war. As with most of Mary Stewart’s novels, this was written as a contemporary novel during the 1950s, when World War II was still vivid in many people’s memories.

We get hints right from the start that Charity is going to become embroiled in a drama - a tragedy, even - although she has no idea of it when she and Louise sit down for drinks on the terrace of their hotel. Louise is a relaxed, laid-back kind of person who wants to sunbathe, read, and draw. Charity is keen on sight-seeing, and is more a person of action.

Her role in the drama starts when she sees a boy called David, who is staying at the hotel with his dog Rommel and his step-mother. There are several other guests, briefly described, but Charity finds herself drawn to David in particular. He’s polite, and friendly, but clearly has suffered and has some secrets which he’s not willing to talk about.

Charity over-hears some worrying discussions, and when she takes David out for the day to do some sight-seeing, he becomes very frightened when he spots his father, Richard Byron. Charity is nervous about him too because by this time she’s learned that David’s father was a suspected murderer, although there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. And it appear that he’s suffering some kind of breakdown… the word ‘mad’ is used, although it’s no longer politically correct or even helpful as a description of someone behaving in irrational and potentially dangerous ways.

Although it’s only eight years since I had read the book, I had entirely forgotten the people and the story-line. I had my suspicions from the start about who to trust, some of which were correct. But I had no memory at all of the back-story - the motive for the crime that David’s father was accused of - nor of the resolution. Nor did I remember that the middle of the book is taken up with a long and tense car chase.

The writing is excellent, as I expect with Mary Stewart, and the characters mostly well-developed. I didn’t empathise particularly with Charity - I’m more like her laid-back and essentially lazy friend Louise. But I liked her, and admired her. Unusually for a 1950s heroine she’s feisty, courageous, and an excellent driver. These traits stand her in good stead in what turns out to be a very dangerous situation.

It’s not an over-tense thriller, however. I don’t like books that pile on the tension; Mary Stewart, in my view, gets exactly the right amount. It helps that it’s interwoven with some light-hearted banter, and even a rather low-key (and very rapidly resolved) love story.

It took me about a third of the book to begin to feel any tension and to be involved in the storyline, but for the last two-thirds it was difficult to put it down. There is more violence than I like, and a very nasty end for a few people; but the ending is conclusive and satisfactory.

Recommended if you enjoy light romantic thrillers from the middle of the 20th century.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews