Book Review: My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart
Continuing with my Mary Stewart binge and continuing to wonder why only Moonspinners was ever turned into a movie. My Brother Michael, out of all the ones I’ve read so far, was by far the easiest to imagine being played out on screen, with perhaps a young Fox brother and a young Jane Birkin in the lead roles.
The start of the book is great. Our heroine, Camilla, has not long broken up with Phillip (I thought she had divorced, but I just read some other reviews which said it wasn’t specified, so I might have just assumed it was a divorce). She’s gone on a holiday to Greece where she finds herself complaining, via a letter she is writing to a friend whilst sitting in an Athens cafe, that nothing exciting ever happens to her. Thus, when a man hands her the keys to a sleek black car which has been hired for a ‘Simon in Delphi’ as a ‘matter of life and death’, she actually decides to deliver the vehicle, regardless of the obvious mistaken identity.
There is, of course, a Simon in Delphi. Simon has travelled to Greece to visit the site where his brother Michael died. He hasn’t arranged for a car though, so the pair set out to solve the mystery.
This book probably has the biggest body count of any of the Stewart books so far. It also gets the award for the most cigarettes smoked. LOL It does have the usual Stewart moments though — the dramatic car chase, the endlessly beautiful descriptions of a European country (this time, Greece and Delphi in particular) and its peoples, the heroine getting instantly and deeply involved in the complicated life of the hero and, thankfully, that strong feminist undertone with the plucky heroine finding a way to save herself instead of waiting for the man to sort her out.
Actually, the parts which turned Camilla into a weak female (her driving, her inability to keep track of her money) were played strictly for laughs and perhaps a bit of an up yours to the aforementioned Phillip. Even the rivalry between Camilla and the conniving other woman didn’t set back feminism as much as one expects when these types of storylines are thrown in.
Stewart’s romantic subplots are always so well done. This one was as understated as you can get while still being considered a romantic suspense.
I probably didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as Stewart’s other books though. I can’t really put my finger on why. It was still a great read, however, and hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for Stewart.
4 out of 5
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