This Rough Magic - Review

Title: This Rough Magic
Author: Mary Stewart
Source: Library

Goodreads Sumamry:

British actress Lucy Waring believes there is no finer place to be "at liberty" than the sun-drenched isle of Corfu, the alleged locale for Shakespeare's The Tempest. Even the suspicious actions of the handsome, arrogant son of a famous actor cannot dampen her enthusiasm for this wonderland in the Ionian Sea.

Then a human corpse is carried ashore on the incoming tide ...

My thoughts:

The most important thing to remember when reading a Stewart book, is that they were originally published in the 60s. This was one was published first in 1964, and because of this, parts of the book are pretty dated.  Nevertheless, I still enjoy them.

This book follows the Stewart formula - youngish woman, who is brave. plucky, quick witted, and most of all heroic.  Lucy Waring is taking a break from her life as an actress in England to stay with her well to do sister in Corfu, off the coast of Greece. The descriptions of the sunny warm weather and the everyday swimming bummed me out a bit, as I am in frigid gloomy Michigan right now. I am not a beach person normally, but reading this book may have changed my mind about that. And this woman is always trooping around in just her swimsuit! I am not sure I would go that far.

It seems like Lucy is enjoying a dream trip, but it soon turns into a dangerous mystery. A suspicious accident, a body washes up on the beach, shots are fired in Lucy's close vicinity while she is out in the water. Like all Stewart heroines, Lucy lands smack dab in the middle of the mystery.  There were even some tense animal rescue moments in it for me!

My only complaint is that I personally was not familiar enough with the politics of that area at that time to really be interested in parts of the plot. But that was just me. And I have to fess up - that cover up there? That was not the cover on the book I read. The one I read looked like this...

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I think it is best read though on a beach under the sun, with a cool drink beside you and the ocean waves as the soundtrack.

I read this as part of the European Reading Challenge.