This Rough Magic

How to create the perfect romantic suspense novel:
1. select a stirring and exotic setting, like the isle of Corfu in Greece, with caves and hidden grottos.
2. conjure up a castle in somewhat spotty repair
3. add a plucky but somewhat naive heroine and a disdainful and gorgeous hero.
4. mix in a few blood-chilling dangers (with sports cars and fancy boats)
5. weave in a dolphin and a Persian cat.

Then put all these ingredients into the hands of a wordsmith extraordinaire, and voila, you have a story that makes you smile and cringe while your pulse races.

I love Mary Stewart. She has style and class and she lends them to her characters with exuberance. For the space of a few days, you suspend all disbelief and you are whisked away into a world show more as unlike your own as can be imagined and yet as possible as the one you occupy.

I am revisiting all of Mary Stewart's novels, after so many years between that it is like reading them for the first time. I enjoyed this as much today as I did in the 1960s. show less

I read all of Mary Stewart's books many years ago and loved them. I thought a reread was in order, and I'm delighted I did. This one is a suspenseful romance, though the romance is not the main impetus of the story by any means. It's on the order of a more action-based Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
Lucy Waring has come to Corfu to visit her pregnant sister after the closing of her play. Her neighbors are Sir Julian Gale, the eminent actor of his time, and his son Max, a musician. Lucy and Max do not hit it off right away, but Lucy is charmed by Sir Julien, who likens Corfu to Shakespeare's The Tempest (Prospero is his most famous role). But soon, bodies begin to appear in this idyllic setting, and Lucy determines to solve the mystery.
The show more idea of using Corfu as the setting and merging in references to The Tempest was brilliant. I loved it when I first read the book and still delight in the quotes from the play. Though a bit dated now, the story is beautifully written, as expected from Ms. Stewart. The romance seemed very rushed, but the suspense is the main point of the plot. It's an enjoyable reread and I'm glad I picked it up again. show less

Why don't my vacations turn into murder mysteries? I mean, gosh, I've been vacationing for decades now and it's never happened! This Rough Magic, published in 1964, is part of Mary Stewart's large catalog of romantic mystery books. It's more heavy on mystery than romance, which suited me just fine.

The location is dreamy - Corfu, an island off Greece. The characters are engaging, especially Lucy our heroine who has a good heart and a strong sense of justice. The prose is detailed and has a style characteristic of Stewart and the writers she inspired. Pacing is great - there's never a dull moment in nearly 400 pages. However, like other books of the era, I found the plot somewhat predictable. The bad guy was a bit too easy to identify, show more although his motivations weren't obvious at first.

I read this for BookRiot's Read Harder challenge category, "from the decade you were born." The character's attitudes (both male and female) were typical of that era. The contrasts and similarities to today added another layer to my enjoyment, or alternately, my frustration.

All in all, an enjoyable interlude in another place and time not so long ago. show less

This was another entertaining romantic suspense title by a pioneer in the genre. Actress Lucy Waring comes from London to spend time with her older sister on the island of Corfu. This idyllic setting should be a wonderful spot to spend a summer while planning what to do next in her career.

She is surprised and very pleased to find that one of her neighbors is Sir Julian Gale whose disappearance from the London stage caused all sorts of rumors. He has always been someone Lucy has looked up to. She does get a chance to meet him when she unknowing visits his rose garden and finds him as charming as she had imagined he would be. However, his son Max who is there in Greece with him is not as charming. Lucy and Max take an almost instant show more dislike to one another.

The final neighbor is Godfrey Manning who is a nature photographer working on a book.

Lucy's plans for a quiet vacation in a beautiful setting are ruined when the son of her sister's housekeeper is lost at sea while working on Mannings boat and another fisherman's body washes up on the shore.

Lucy finds herself in the middle of a smuggling operation with a smuggler who isn't hesitant to kill anyone who gets in his way. She isn't sure if she should if it is Max or Godfrey who is the villain of the piece.

I loved the wonderful setting of the story. Stewart's descriptions made me wish that I could visit Corfu as it was 50 or so years ago. I thought that there was a nice amount of suspense in the story and a sweet slow-burn romance too. Helen Johns did a nice job with the narration. She made each character unique and used her voice to build the suspense. show less

Sometimes, whether or not I decide to read a book depends on the weather. Mary Stewart’s books are best read on either very hot or very cold days; and since it was 90 degrees out one weekend a couple of weeks ago, I decided that this one would be perfect. And it was.

This Rough Magic takes its title from The Tempest, a play from which this novel takes off. Lucy Waring is a struggling actress who comes to visit her sister on Corfu. One of her neighbors is a renowned actor who’s taken a bit of a sabbatical and his son, a musician with whom Lucy comes to blows at first. This Rough Magic is vintage Mary Stewart, with a murder or two, a mystery, romance, suspense, and lots of magic thrown in.

Lucy is your typical Mary Stewart heroine: show more plucky, feisty, and has no end of courage to get her through her adventure. Her relationship with Max Gale is somewhat predictable, but much more interesting is Sir Julian, a gentleman with a number of surprises up his sleeve. Having read most of Mary Stewart’s suspense novels now, this one is right up there as one of the more suspenseful. The plot moves at great speed, and there are some truly wonderful scenes in this book: none more so than Lucy’s initial encounter with the dolphin. I loved the author’s descriptions of Corfu. I also loved how Mary Stewart incorporates the political atmosphere of Corfu and Greece into the plot of this novel. This Rough Magic is, in my opinion, one of the better of Mary Stewart’s books. show less

This was another entertaining romantic suspense title by a pioneer in the genre. Actress Lucy Waring comes from London to spend time with her older sister on the island of Corfu. This idyllic setting should be a wonderful spot to spend a summer while planning what to do next in her career.

She is surprised and very pleased to find that one of her neighbors is Sir Julian Gale whose disappearance from the London stage caused all sorts of rumors. He has always been someone Lucy has looked up to. She does get a chance to meet him when she unknowing visits his rose garden and finds him as charming as she had imagined he would be. However, his son Max who is there in Greece with him is not as charming. Lucy and Max take an almost instant show more dislike to one another.

The final neighbor is Godfrey Manning who is a nature photographer working on a book.

Lucy's plans for a quiet vacation in a beautiful setting are ruined when the son of her sister's housekeeper is lost at sea while working on Mannings boat and another fisherman's body washes up on the shore.

Lucy finds herself in the middle of a smuggling operation with a smuggler who isn't hesitant to kill anyone who gets in his way. She isn't sure if she should if it is Max or Godfrey who is the villain of the piece.

I loved the wonderful setting of the story. Stewart's descriptions made me wish that I could visit Corfu as it was 50 or so years ago. I thought that there was a nice amount of suspense in the story and a sweet slow-burn romance too. Helen Johns did a nice job with the narration. She made each character unique and used her voice to build the suspense. show less

It took awhile, but I've come to a book that my mom and I don't necessarily agree on. She remembers this book fondly, while I have more ambivalent feelings about it.

I was less than 8 pages in before I was ready to chuck it all and go to Corfu; Stewart's creation of the setting was downright seductive. I loved the scenes with the dolphin too - even the midnight scene, which ratcheted up the suspense and had me muttering threats at the author under my breath until the end. The way the caves figured into the plot was fun and no way did I see how the book was going to end - where Stewart was taking her readers - although she does foreshadow the culprit early enough that the who was not a shock, even if the what certainly was.

The entire show more title-referencing-Shakespeare, went right over my head (I was expecting, you know actual magic), but Shakespeare's The Tempest plays a big part throughout the book. I have no idea if her characters' theories hold any water, but the parallels they drew were fun to read about.

What I didn't like was, unfortunately, the entire "Romantic" part of the romantic suspense. "Didn't like" might be too strong; it just failed to move me in any way at all. The scene on the beach (at midnight - the one with the dolphin) felt like a realistic evolution of the moment, but when the characters go straight from that one moment to this weird assumption that their relationship is a fait accompli, I felt like entire chapters of character development were missing. As a result I never bought into the romance part of their relationship.

Not a bad read at all, but not as strong as Touch Not the Cat, for example; which started off slow, but had me riveted by the end. show less