My Brother Michael

Paperback

English language

Published Aug. 6, 1967 by Hodder.

ONLY A MOMENT BEFORE

Camilla Haven is on holiday alone, and wishes for some excitement. She had been sitting quietly in a crowded Athens cafe writing to her friend Elizabeth in England, "Nothing ever happens tome..."

Then, without warning, a stranger approached, thrust a set of car keys at her and pointed to a huge black touring car parked at the curb. "The car for Delphi, mademoiselle... A matter of life and death," he whispered and disappeared.

From that moment Camilla her life suddenly begins to take off when she sets out on a mysterious car journey to Delphi in the company of a charming but quietly determined Englishman named Simon Lester. Simon told Camilla he had come to the ancient Greek ruins to "appease the shade” of his brother Michael, killed some fourteen years earlier on Parnassus. From a curious letter Michael had written, Simon believed …

ONLY A MOMENT BEFORE

Camilla Haven is on holiday alone, and wishes for some excitement. She had been sitting quietly in a crowded Athens cafe writing to her friend Elizabeth in England, "Nothing ever happens tome..."

Then, without warning, a stranger approached, thrust a set of car keys at her and pointed to a huge black touring car parked at the curb. "The car for Delphi, mademoiselle... A matter of life and death," he whispered and disappeared.

From that moment Camilla her life suddenly begins to take off when she sets out on a mysterious car journey to Delphi in the company of a charming but quietly determined Englishman named Simon Lester. Simon told Camilla he had come to the ancient Greek ruins to "appease the shade” of his brother Michael, killed some fourteen years earlier on Parnassus. From a curious letter Michael had written, Simon believed his brother had stumbled upon something of great importance hidden in the craggy reaches of the mountainside. And then Simon and Camilla learned that they were not alone in their search...

The ride was Camilla's first mistake... or perhaps she unintentionally had invoked the gods. She finds herself in the midst of an exciting, intriguing, yet dangerous adventure. An extraordinary train of events turned on a nightmare of intrigue and terror beyond her wildest daydreams.

19 editions

Angela Korra'ti reviewed My Brother Michael by Stewart, Mary.

None

2 stars

My Brother Michael definitely fits into the mold of other Mary Stewarts I've read this year: exotic locale, young Englishwoman who manages to stumble across something intriguing going on, most of the intriguing bits kind of buried behind too much talk and not enough actual action (at least for this modern reader). And yet, the charm of her prose keeps me coming back to read all the good bits, even if I wind up skimming through most of the book to get the gist of what's going on.

This particular time around, the heroine didn't quite click with me well enough to make me take my time reading through the book. She's too much of a wallflower in a way that may have been suited to the time in which this book was written, but which definitely feels dated now--and she doesn't really do enough to show her developing independence, …

My Brother Michael definitely fits into the mold of other Mary Stewarts I've read this year: exotic locale, young Englishwoman who manages to stumble across something intriguing going on, most of the intriguing bits kind of buried behind too much talk and not enough actual action (at least for this modern reader). And yet, the charm of her prose keeps me coming back to read all the good bits, even if I wind up skimming through most of the book to get the gist of what's going on.

This particular time around, the heroine didn't quite click with me well enough to make me take my time reading through the book. She's too much of a wallflower in a way that may have been suited to the time in which this book was written, but which definitely feels dated now--and she doesn't really do enough to show her developing independence, to my mind. She spends too much time being perfectly willing to let the hero do unpleasant and bothersome tasks for her, and is particularly irritating in her failure to rise to the challenge of managing a large and unfamiliar car. Though to be fair, I'll also note that she was at least aware of her own tendencies in this--so I'm willing to ascribe to Stewart at least some intention of having the girl grow a backbone. I just wish Stewart would have worked a little harder at it.

Points though for being set in Greece, and lots of references to Greek gods and the like. Between that and a likeable enough stalwart British hero, I'll give this one two and a half stars.