Stewart, Mary

(British, 1916– )

Stewart was born in Sunderland, and educated at Durham University, where she lectured until 1945. Begin with My Brother Michael (1960), which typifies her fiction's blend of mystery, adventure, and colourful foreign locations. Set in Delphi, it tells of the search for the truth about the death of an Englishman working with the Greek resistance during the Second World War. In Airs above Ground (1965), an Englishwoman in post-war Vienna becomes involved with the international security forces. The book includes scenes in Vienna's Spanish Riding School and reaches a dramatic climax high in the Austrian Alps. Her earlier novel, Nine Coaches Waiting (1958), concerns an English girl who becomes a governess in France. Tension mounts when she learns of a plot to kill the boy in her charge and implicate her as the murderer.

Evelyn Anthony, Daphne du Maurier, Dorothy Dunnett  DH