Book log 1) Mary Stewart -- Wildfire at Midnight

[julesjones]

1956 contemporary romantic suspense set on the Isle of Skye. Fashion model Gianetta Drury needs some peace and quiet, She's never fully recovered from her divorce to the husband she still loves, and London during the build-up to the Coronation is more excitement and fuss than she wants. A holiday on the Isle of Skye seems ideal, until she discovers that her ex-husband Nicholas has signed into the same hotel on the same day. And if that wasn't enough, it turns out that there has been a recent murder, and the other residents of the hotel are suspects. Nicholas isn't exempt, because he was staying in the hotel on a previous trip. And then there is another murder...

While I picked out the correct candidate for murderer readily enough at the first clear clue/herring, the story's well enough written that it doesn't matter. There's still plenty of suspense in whether the characters will recognise the right pattern in time. The book has some engaging lead characters in a strongly drawn setting, and some genuinely chilling scenes. A particular highlight for me was the chase in the fog towards the end of the book. One with re-read potential even after you know the solution.

http://www.librarything.com/work/26796

Comments

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

That was the first Stewart I read, when I was about twelve. Hooked me. I did not guess the murderer early on, but it led me to read the abridged Golden Bough.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[julesjones]

I went in with "romantic suspense" protocols booted and running, so I was already prepared to discount all the evidence that the ex-husband was the killer. Which made it that bit more obvious when he was being used to hide the real killer in plain sight. :-)