Good old-fashioned adventure

This is a great, classic thriller, from the days when telephones were rare and attitudes to women were very different. It is of its time, but still hugely enjoyable today,
I wasn't too keen on the narrator initially, but I got used to her, and it is always pleasant to have someone reading a story aloud.
(I notice the Audible version omits Mary Stewart's jocular digs at the Guardian in chapter one - they were also very much of their time but presumably woukd not have travelled well with an international audience.)

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Great

great book, great narrator, interesting story.
I recommend if you just like me have a mostly repetitive, physical, but lonely job and like to listen to something in order to get the mind working ☺️

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1 person found this helpful

A magical tale

Although I had read this many years ago, there was much I hadn't remembered. Lots of action, unexpected turns with a bit of humour added.

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Another Favourite!

Hadn't read this since it was first published, so a delightful awakening of that initial enjoyment. Literally couldn't stop listening, and still shed a year at the perfect ending! Super!

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4 people found this helpful

Odd reading, yet it still enhanced the book

This is another of the old, well loved, Mary Stewart murder / mystery / romance set of novels mainly written between the 1950s and 1970, well before her Arthurian books. This was published in 1965. It was never one of my top favourites, though I did enjoy it - but somehow the story never really 'gripped' me, (though it did give me an ambition to go to Vienna one day to see the Spanish Riding School).
Vanessa and her husband Lewis have fallen out when their planned time together had to be scrapped so Lewis could go back to work abroad, and not for the first time. Vanessa becomes aware (though her mother's gloriously awful friend, Carmel, briefly read but you get a real ‘sense’ for the ghastly woman) that Lewis may not be where he said he was going... so, lumbered with Carmel's young son Timmy as a travelling companion, she sets off to find out for herself.
Not only does Vanessa find out what's happening with her husband, getting pitched into a mystery along the way, but she also learns that Tim isn't anyone's 'little boy'; instead a resourceful and rather nice young man more than capable of getting involved in whatever is going on.
It's a good story, and it's not badly delivered - I've heard a lot worse - though other reviewers are right that the style isn’t particularly fluid, and basically it's just being read rather than performed, albeit in a pleasant voice. No real attempt at characterisation (strangely enough, apart from a parrot who is quite good). I’ve definitely heard a lot better, but oddly I still found that I became more involved listening to this than I had when originally reading the book.
Despite the rather stilted reading, I liked it.

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2 people found this helpful

Very enjoyable and, in places, very likely to bring on tears!

This is the one Mary Stewart book that, despite being such a fan, I somehow had never read. I rather enjoyed not knowing what was coming, and just letting the narrator take me wherever the plot would lead. It's a story that takes a little while to get to the exciting parts but, once it does, there's no stopping it. There was plenty of humour too. I liked it all very much. The narrator was at her best with the narrative parts, with creating suspense, and with dialogue that involved people speaking in differing accents. But, like a previous reviewer, I did have a little difficulty knowing who was speaking in those dialogues involving Vanessa and Timothy, where the author hadn't written he said/she said to help me out. But this is a minor quibble, given that the content of most of the dialogue made it clear enough. The narrator certainly came into her own with the scenes of great jeopardy. And also with the story of one very special horse. I absolutely defy anyone - animal lover or no - not to reach for the tissues when Old Piebald is centre stage. The epilogue had me in bits. So, all in all, very enjoyable. I know I'll listen to it again.

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5 people found this helpful

years later

I read this book many, many years ago.
it was as good this time as the first

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2 people found this helpful

Brilliant story let down by a poor narrator

An exciting and very entertaining story by Mary Stewart. Unfortunately, the narration was extremely poor with the narrator making little/no effort to differentiate between the different characters and between males and females.

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6 people found this helpful

Awful narration

I love Mary Stewart, but the narration spoiled an excellent book. There was no feeling in the dialogue, charaters all sounded the same, but the worst part was the delivery - each sentence was almost blurted out and then a gap then the next, so for the first part of the book I put it on a slower speed. This was wasn't ideal and I went back to the regular speed.

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3 people found this helpful

Narration can make so much difference

I was a great fan of Mary Stewart prior to her Merlin novels.
Always well written and descriptive….takes you to the moment and the place. Can almost smell the pastries and the coffee. Sadly though the narration left a lot to be desired. It was sometimes difficult to distinguish who was saying what and the narrator had very little if no knowledge of the story…saying wind (as in winding up a clock) instead of wind (as in the stuff that howls) for example.
Summary…good story but love to hear it read by someone else.

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2 people found this helpful