Mary Stewart, The Moonspinners

[ellarien]

This is the first novel of an omnibus collection of four that I picked up used a few years ago.

It's a thriller, I suppose, if you can have a thriller with a female protagonist, set in a remote village in Crete, though most of the cast are middle-class English persons. The landscapes are beautiful, sparkling with sun and flowers; the plot bubbles along nicely. It reminded me a little of John Buchan, but without the shadowy international conspiracies or the ancient evils, and a little of Daphne du Maurier, but without the crazy people.

The whole thing left me with a rather odd feeling. It was written in the 1960's, and it seems like another world altogether. Only ... I was born around then. Am I really a relic of such a different age? The world seems so innocent; no terrorism, no unease with the social order, no cold war paranoia, no drugs but casual and harmless cigarettes. I know, from history and dimly from my own early memories, that things weren't that simple in the real world, but for a while last night I felt old, lost in time.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Why on earth couldn't you have a thriller with a female protagonist?

[ellarien]

I dunno, it just seems unusual, probably because I grew up on John Buchan and the odd Alistair MacLean that my father brought home from the library. Maybe when I'm more awake I'll think of counterexamples.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Lots of thrillers have female protagonists, including all of Mary Stewart's, all but one of Barbara Michaels', and a great many YA thrillers such as those by Lois Duncan and Caroline Clooney.

[ellarien]

Barbara Michaels? (Checks Amazon; is intrigued.) I note that those are described as 'romantic suspense', and at least some of them seem to have fantasy (or horror?) elements. Would you recommend anything of hers in particular?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yes, one of the fun things about Michaels is that some have fantasy elements and some appear to, but later turn out to have rational explanations. I particularly like The Sea King's Daughter, Shattered Silk, and Someone in the House. Generally speaking, her contemporary thrillers are better than her Gothics.

I wrote about her here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/rachelmanija/29450.html

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oope. I should have added, Into the Darkness, which is actually my favorite of hers.

[ellarien]

Thanks! I'll bear these in mind next time I'm in the used book store.