When in my teens, one of my favourite authors was Mary Stewart, the so called originator of the romantic suspense novel. She also wrote historical novels but I wasn't attracted to those. No. For me it was the murder-mystery-with-a-bit-of-love-interest books, set in locations such as Corfu and Skye, the Pyrenees and Vienna, and with heroines called Gianetta, Vanessa, Camilla and Bryony.
I remember devouring each of them, one after the other, occasionally managing to match the setting I was reading in to that of the book. Talk about walking in a character's footsteps. Sadly, I didn't hang on to any of those original books which have long since been discarded, but I recently decided my reading might benefit from a blast from the past so ordered a couple that stood out in my memory.
I've just started Wildfire at Midnight and already I'm hoping it's not a bad idea to revisit old favourites and that they don't disappoint. We'll see if they stand the test of time.
When I was reading the novels first time round I knew nothing about the author but have discovered that she still has her fans, recently celebrated her 93rd birthday, is from this part of the world (north east England), graduated from Durham University in 1938 with a first class honours degree in English and has said of her writing:
"I'd rather just say that I write novels, fast-moving stories that
entertain. To my mind there are really only two kinds of novels, badly
written and well written. Beyond that, you cannot categorise...Can't I
say that I just write stories? 'Storyteller' is an old and honourable
title, and I'd like to lay claim to it."