The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Content: Clean


Mary Grey had come from Canada to the land of her forebears: Northumberland. As she savored the ordered, spare beauty of England’s northern fells, the silence was shattered by the shout of a single name: “Annabel!”

Another good mystery/romantic suspense story by Mary Stewart; The Ivy Tree wasn't my favorite, but was still good. The secret about Mary was an interesting twist, but I'm not sure how plausible the whole premise was. Stewart's books usually incorporate insta-love, but not this one, which was a good thing. This was written in 1961 so there is an excessive amount of smoking compared to today's books and a couple of sexist lines that dated it as well, but it is a product of it's time and I enjoyed reading it as I pictured the early 60s setting. I think the biggest issue I had with the book is that there is so much description. Stewart has a talent for writing good descriptive surroundings, but in this case it was a bit too much and I felt like it ate into a couple of the suspenseful scenes. The best thing about this book is that Mary Stewart kept me guessing about Mary's identity.



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