The Ivy Tree
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4.3 • 13 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Mary Stewart, one of the great British storytellers of the 20th century, transports listeners to rural Northumberland for this tale of romance, ambition, and deceit - a perfect fit for fans of Agatha Christie and Barbara Pym.
Whitescar is a beautiful old house and farm situated in Roman Wall country. It will make a rich inheritance for its heirs, but in order to secure it, they enlist the help of a young woman named Mary who bears remarkable resemblance to missing Whitescar heiress, Annabel Winslow. Their deception will spark a powder-keg of ambition, obsession and long-dead love.
The ivy had reached for the tree and only the tree's upper branches managed to thrust the young gold leaves of early summer through the strangling curtain. Eventually the ivy would kill it . . .
'There are few to equal Mary Stewart' Daily Telegraph
'Mary Stewart is magic.' New York Times
'One of the great British storytellers of the 20th century' Independent
'The Ivy Tree has the ideal thriller blend of plot, suspense, character drawing and good writing' Daily Express
(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Customer Reviews
Interesting But Narrator Just Okay
This was an interesting departure from the Mary Stewart I’m used to. Not only is her heroine more fallible than a typical Stewart heroine, but so is the hero. There is the high drama of secrets, sins and a sociopathic antagonist. I think this would’ve made a good vacation read in paperback, and I might try picking up a copy for that purpose as I think it bears a second read.
My main quibble-I’d dock it half a point if I could-is the narrator. I’m uncertain of her original nationality. Her ‘about’ is Canadian, but I live in the upper states and I’ve travelled extensively in Canada, as well as having Canadian friends and I’ve never heard anyone pronounce words like she does. There’s tomatoes (our narrator’s mat rhymes with cat); calmly (we say calmly or cahmly but nobody says camly like she does) and quite a few other words that threw me. Had her North American accent been good it would’ve been fine since that’s how she plays the majority of the book. But the other accents she does are all over the place as well. I thought the Irish was good (maybe that’s the one that’s not an accent?) but the British was not great.
I own about 1000 audiobooks and have listened to about 999 so I have a lot with which to compare. I’d say this narrator has potential but right now I’d class her in the lower third, which is too bad for a Mary Stewart novel. The rest of the reissued Stewart books on audio have outstanding narrators.