The Ivy Tree - Creeps, Grips and Enthralls

The Ivy Tree, set in the bleak British Isles, opens chapters with verses. 

AngelikaGraczyk 

A North Country maid up to London had strayed,
Although with her nature it did not agree.
She wept and she sighed and she bitterly cried,
“I wish once again in the North I could be.
Oh the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree,
They flourish at home in my own country.”

17th Century Song

Mary Grey, a Canadian, has moved to England. Things are not going too well for her. One Sunday finds her walking along Hadrian’s Wall, all alone.

Part of Hadrian's Wall - Jamesflomonosoff , Public Domain 

Lost in her sad thoughts, she hears someone call out.

Annabel!

It's a handsome but dangerous looking man. He is Connor, it turns out, and he seems to think she is his cousin who disappeared. And just before she vanished, her grandfather was going to leave his wealth to her.

Connor, now convinced that Mary is not Annabel, suggests Mary act like Annabel so that they can get the inheritance and share it.  It's not that easy as Mary is the opposite of Annabel in many ways. She hates horses, for example, while the Annabel loved them.

And how can she avoid horses when Matthew Winslow, Connor's uncle and Annabel's grandfather, owns Whitescar, a farm. He's had a stroke and is near death. Even so, the old man is controlling. This is, perhaps, why ruthless Connor, the farm's manager, is bad tempered.

Beanley North Side Farm
by Russel Wills - CC BY-SA 2.0

Connor has a loyal sister who would like him to inherit. And there's Julie, Annabel's cousin, and her boyfriend, Donald, an archaeologist working on Roman excavations. She knows that Annabel had an affair with Adam, a wealthy neighbor.

There are many twists and turns in this suspenseful romantic thriller which the reader cannot anticipate though the heroine is the narrator.

Double acting is a big thing in Indian films. Even around the world, people love stories about mistaken identity and twins and other doppelgangers. 

I really wonder why all Mary Stewart novels were not made into films or TV serials. Some say this novel reminds them of another one by another author - Brat Farrar.

Danger and death entwine themselves around The Ivy Tree, making it a thrilling read. Who is the hero and who the villain? The tension is folded nicely between gentle scenes and romance, making this a great read! 

Click on Preview on the book cover below to get a feel of the writing. And don't hesitate to buy, borrow and read The Ivy Tower, the perfect novel for this time of year. The ebbing monsoon breeze is hauntingly right for such a story.

With the next post, we shall see how Mary Stewart spins a story set in Greece. In a previous excursion through her novels, we visited Delphi and now it's time for Crete, an island surrounded by grand legends.