Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart

5 Stars

Last week was such a treat, all of Mary Stewart's books were issued in ebook format and being sold for great prices.  So I splurged and bought 10 of her mysteries (I have all her books in paperback or hardcover) because Lady Mary is one of my all-time faves!  She wrote the mysteries that were my introduction to grown up mysteries.  From Trixie Belden books (which I still adore) to Mary Stewarts.  My favourite of hers is The Moonspinners, but Airs Above the Ground is a close second.

We have horses... and not just any horses, my friends, but the famous Lipizzaner horses.  I can't remember clearly, but I think this was my first Mary Stewart, and the reason I picked it up was because of the horses.  Horse mad is what I was.  Nothing's changed.  *LOL*

Now this book was written in 1965 and I always thought it was set maybe a decade earlier, simply because of its talk of newsreels but I could be wrong and they had those in British movie theatres in the 60s.  Anyway it has all the hallmarks of a book of the time.  But that doesn't bother me.  That was just how things were then and the way that Lady Mary writes her heroine, Vanessa, even when the men are trying to protect her, she has a nice bit of sarcastic aside that lets you know she's fully capable.  I will admit though, I did like the way the hero made the villain regret what he had done to her. 

And then there's Timothy, Tim, the teenager who Vanessa is supposedly chaperoning in a trip to Austria. He goes from a sulky boy to a funny and smart young man and becomes one of my favourite Mary Stewart characters.  He's vital to the solving of the mystery too.

I watched an interview with Mary Stewart a few days ago - it was from 2010, I think - and she spoke of these books as adventures and yeah, I'll buy that.  Romantic suspense, yeah, but definitely adventures.

So this was a very, very enjoyable reread. I'm glad I splurged.  Oh and... check the cover!  All the books have these fabulous covers and I love them. 

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