Wildfire at Midnight (by Mary Stewart)

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I have enjoyed re-reading my Mary Stewart novels in recent years, and also acquiring some I had not previously read; most of her books have been re-published and are more easily available than before. I first discovered Mary Stewart’s writing in my school library as a teenager, and while some of her books were a bit too ‘thrilling’, I liked the genre of romantic suspense, and was pleased to discover several of my old favourites.

I had ‘Wildfire at Midnight’ on my wishlist for a while, and was given it for my birthday earlier this year. I’ve just finished reading it and am pretty sure it’s not one I have come across in the past, although the title feels somewhat familiar.

The protagonist of the novel is a young woman called Gianetta, a name given to her in memory of a rather shocking great-grandmother whom she never met. I’m not entirely sure what the point was of this foray into family history in the first chapter, as it’s not at all relevant to the rest of the novel. However it introduces Gianetta nicely; she works as a model, but is tired and is persuaded by her parents to take a break. We learn early in the book that she was briefly married to Nicholas, and now divorced although her mother doesn’t quite believe that they are no longer together.

So Gianetta travels to the Scottish island of Skye, hoping to get away from people, from her memories, from her work… and also from the stress of the upcoming Coronation, which sets the book firmly in historical context: the early Summer of 1953.

After arriving at the hotel which her parents recommend, Gianetta immediately recognises an actress and they become acquainted. There are other visitors too, one of whom she knows already - it seems a bit of a coincidence, but not really a problem. However I couldn’t distinguish the other visitors - married couples, two single women, and a few others. Mary Stewart’s characterisation is usually good, but I simply couldn’t keep my mind on the different guests. And it was important to do so, because this book turns out to be a murder mystery.

However it’s not in the Agatha Christie style; although the first tragedy took place off-stage, before the start of the book, it’s described rather ghoulishly. Nor is it the only one… and unsurprisingly Gianetta herself goes through some very tense moments. I had half guessed who the perpetrator was by some of the action - and when revealed, it was clear that there had been some clues, although I don’t think I would have picked them up.

I have to admit that by the time I was about three-quarters of the way through the book I was finding it so tense that I had to skip to the end to discover if my hunch was correct, and to find out what happened. I assumed that Gianetta survived, since she is the narrator of the whole book, telling the story in the past tense. But I wasn’t going to keep reading if the rest of the guests didn’t...

I found the ending quite satisfactory, if a tad surprising in one respect, and then went back to read the intervening chapters, which were less stressful when I knew the outcome. Mary Stewart was excellent at writing suspenseful prose, and as a thriller it works very well if you like this kind of tension. The romantic thread, such as it is, is quite low-key in this book.

I liked Gianetta, even if the other characters felt a bit flat, and thought it a good story. It's one which I will probably re-read in another decade or so. Not my favourite by this author, but if you like nicely tense books from the middle of the 20th century, this is a good one to try. It's now considered a modern classic, and is available in ebook form as well as paperback. Mary Stewart's novels are also often found second-hand.

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