July 2019 buddy read with the Mary Stewart group, starting up now!
3.5 stars, somewhat hesitantly rounding up, for this retro romantic suspense novel bJuly 2019 buddy read with the Mary Stewart group, starting up now!
3.5 stars, somewhat hesitantly rounding up, for this retro romantic suspense novel by Mary Stewart, one of my favorite authors. An unusual and rather exotic setting: 1960's Syria and Lebanon.
This book gets off to a rather slow start, as Christy Mansel runs into her second cousin Charles as she's vacationing in Damascus. He's a good-looking guy who tools around in a white Porsche 911S. [image] I think I like him already.
They have dinner, chat, flirt a little, then meet up again in Beirut, Lebanon, where Charles encourages Christy to look up their Great-Aunt Harriet, who lives in a dilapidated castle in the wilds of the Adonis Valley, styling herself as a modern-day Lady Hester Stanhope, a famous, real-life Englishwoman who lived in a former monastery in the wilds of Lebanon in the 1800s, shaving her head and wearing a turban and Arab mens' clothing.
[image]
There's something very odd about Christy's visit with Aunt Harriet - well, besides the fact that she lives in a ruined, filthy castle with very odd servants and hangers-on, and only receives visitors in the dead of night - but Christy can't quite put her finger on it. Charles (when he shows up on the sly to sneak around the castle with Christy) thinks he knows, but he's not saying ... for Christy's "protection," you know.
[image] Adonis Valley
The setting is an interesting mix of Gothic and near Eastern. Mary Stewart's penchant for detailed descriptions of landscape and setting is in full bloom here; sometimes I love it but sometimes it's a bit much for me, and it does tend to slow down the pace. The leisurely pace picks up very suddenly about 3/4 of the way through, and then it's a compelling race to the finish line, highlighted by a scene with lots of animals and a bit of an echo of Noah's ark about it.
Christy is from a very wealthy family; she's a little spoiled, but has a lot of gumption and enough concern for others (at least the non-villainous ones) that I still liked her pretty well as a main character. The villain was believable and creepy enough to make me wrap my blanket around myself a little tighter. It's a pretty decent light mystery.
This was written in the 1960s so everyone smokes cigarettes ... and sometimes other stuff, this being hashish country. This raised some random (or not) hashish questions: Can three reefers totally knock someone for a loop? Could someone smoke a reefer and mistakenly think it's a tobacco cigarette, and that the odd flavor is just due to it being locally made?
The Gabriel Hounds isn't at the top of my list of Mary Stewart suspense novels, but it's a solid, enjoyable read if you like old-fashioned suspense novels.
Initial thoughts: I've read this book at least a couple of times over the years, but it's been a long while. It's got an unusual setting: Damascus, Syria and the Adonis Valley in Lebanon, in the 1960s. The intrepid young heroine (an invariable staple in Stewart's suspense novels) visits her eccentric, rich old relative, Great-Aunt Harriet, who lives like Lady Hester Stanhope, wearing a turban and lording it over the local Arab natives. But there's something sinister going on in Aunt Harriet's villa...
The hero/love interest in this book is, I think, notable mostly for the fact that he's absent for about half of the book. He's a second cousin of the heroine; this was changed from a first cousin from the British version of this novel, where they're less uptight about propinquity, or at least used to be. :D
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
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