My Brother Michael (by Mary Stewart)

(Amazon UK link)

I have read and liked novels by Mary Stewart for over forty years. I discovered some of her books in the ‘senior library’ at my secondary school, and loved her writing style. She was one of the first writers of ‘romantic thrillers’, and while as a teenager I liked the romance (always very low-key) better than the thrills, I knew too that she was a good story-teller.

In recent years, many of her lesser-known novels have been published. When I like an author, I like to collect all their works, so I’ve added some which I didn’t have to my wishlist.  I was given ‘My Brother Michael’ for my birthday almost nine months ago, and have just finished reading it.

As with all of Mary Stewart’s books, the writing is excellent. She paints her scenery realistically; this one is set in Greece, and I felt that the places and people were all authentic. There’s perhaps a tad more description than I like, in places but it’s easy to skim. Her conversations are believable, and her main characters quite well-rounded.

Camilla is the narrator of this book. She’s in her mid-twenties, and has recently broken off an engagement to a man whom she acknowledges was quite controlling. She’s on her own in Athens, writing to a friend complaining that nothing much ever happens to her.

Camilla’s funds are running low and she’s wondering how she might be able to get to Delphi. At that moment, a man comes into the cafe where she’s writing, and approaches her table. He says that a car is ready for her, with the deposit paid already. His English isn’t brilliant and her Greek is limited to about half a dozen phrases, and she is not able to persuade him that he has the wrong person. He insists that ‘Mr Simon’ needs the car, and that it’s a matter of life or death…

While she has plenty of qualms, Camilla eventually picks up the key that was left behind, and decides that she will drive to Delphi. It’s at this point we learn that she hasn’t driven for a long time, never on the other side of the road. The book is set in the 1950s, when licenses were easier to get - or not required - and she has a few false starts before she gets going - and some near run-ins en route to Delphi.

Naturally she finds Simon, and equally unsurprisingly he has no clue about the car - but the two seem to click, and she learns that he is in Delphi to get some closure on his brother Michael’s death in the war, twelve years earlier. She accompanies him as he meets the family who took Michael in when he was injured, and she also gets to know one or two other people locally.

The story doesn’t really get tense until about half-way through, and the extreme ‘thriller’ part is in the final chapters. It’s a complex and very well-thought-out plot, all too believable, and the bad guys are really extremely unpleasant. There’s more violence than I’m comfortable with; I’d forgotten that Mary Stewart sometimes almost casually kills off some of her minor characters, and thinks nothing of a few good fights with serious injuries.

Having a first-person narrator ensures that I wasn’t worried about whether Camilla would survive, and I was pretty sure that Simon would too, but it was touch-and-go at times. I had to put the book down a few times as I came towards the end, as it was more ‘thrilling’ than I like. There isn’t much of a romance, either; while there are hints, nothing is said or followed through.

I’ve liked other of Mary Stewart’s novels better, but this was still a good read. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes this genre: for older teenagers or adults.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews