The absolute joy of Mary Stewart is her ability to take you right out of this world and place you securely in her own. My Brother Michael is one of my favorite mystery/romances, with a stirring plot that moves rapidly and keeps you guessing to the end.

"Nothing ever happens to me" laments Camilla and right away we know the adventure is about to begin. Mary Stewart transformed the fainting heroine into a plucky girl regularly in her novels, but I especially love the way she takes this girl who is feeling less than confident at the outset and allows her to exhibit a very believable courage in a very scary situation.

I have set myself a goal of revisiting all of Mary Stewart's novels and this year I have done a number of them and enjoyed them all. So far, though, My Brother Michael has been my favorite of the mystery/romance genre. ( )

Some books from my childhood.

This was rather a weak entry in the Mary Stewart works. The plot seemed fairly simple but I never really felt like it hung together. Conversations seemed to spring out of nothing and have connections that didn't make sense and I sometimes wondered if paragraphs had been left out or put in the wrong place. English tourist in Greece, Camilla, becomes somewhat bizarrely involved in the search of another Englishman, Simon, for what happened to his brother, Micheal, in Delphi during WWII. That is the gist of the plot but there seem to be things hinted at that never turn into anything and the final reveal isn't really that interesting. I preferred The Moon-Spinners for adventures in Greece.

A well-written and exciting story, set in Greece in the 1950s. Camilla, who narrates, is drawn into a dangerous and thrilling search. The baddies are really very bad, and the author thinks nothing of including some very unpleasant violence. But the main characters are likeable and the conversations believable.

I found a bit too much description, and rather more 'thrills' than I like, with only the faintest hint of a romance to come, although it was somewhat inevitable. But it was a good book, and I'd recommend it to older teens or adults who like this genre.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2021/01/my-brother-michael-by-mary-stewart.... ( )

Romantic suspense. It was ok but not sure why Nancy raved about it. ( )