Thunder on the Right

This is a very good book. I got it in like new condition. The book itself is a great story with suspense, mystery, and romance all in one.

I love Mary Stewart and have read all of her books, but this is not her greatest novel. I prefer the other romantic mysteries written in first person, but this story is still wonderful. If this is your first time reading a Mary Stewart, I would try "This Rough Magic" or "Nine Coaches Waiting" first.

Perhaps because this is Mary Stewart's only narrative written in the third person, I thought "Thunder on the Right" ranked in the lower third when compared to the author's twenty other novels of romantic suspense. Upon re-reading it --actually listening to the Chiver's Unabridged audio, I realize it is just as well-crafted albeit sprinkled too liberally with adjectives as any of the other more well known Stewart titles. In particular, without the compelling tell-all 1st person narrative usually facilitated by Stewart, the heroine of the tale, one Jennifer Silver, comes across as exactly what she is--a 22 year old with the scant experience of any young girl coming straight out of the sheltered privledged environment of upper class Briton--instead of the usual intrepid/curious/resourceful traveler of the other stories. Here, Jennifer has traveled to the wild southwestern portion of France, where the Pyrenees form the country's natural boundary from Spain. Excited to meet up with her half-French cousin, Gillian, she is utterly shocked to encounter Stephen, a music student acquaintance of her father with whom she had a brief but platonic flirtation years prior to coming to France. As with the other Stewart novels, romance comes secondary, if not thirdly in importance when weighed against the circumstances of the mystery within the plotline. And here,it tends to be a little melodramatic--Stephen, the brooding musician reining in his feelings of passion for Jennie, and Jennie, herself, not even realizing what passion is. Far better is the novel's main thrust--for when Jennie attempts to contact her cousin at the local convent where the half-French girl is deciding upon a religious vocation, Jennie discovers rather abruptly from the convent's bursar that her cousin has died and has been buried within the convent walls. Shocked but by no means mentally incapacitated, Jennie realizes that Dona Francisca's story does not make sense, as Jennie knows one or two things about her cousin that renders the explanation totally invalid. Here Jennifer takes the initiative as do all the Stewart heroines--hell bent to discover the truth with no thought to her own safety. The path she follows is a treacherous one, involving the bursar, her plans for the convent and illegal doings that make the locale's proximity to Spain extremely convenient.If you have the opportunity, listen to the audio book, Harriet Walker's command of voices help convey the characters of each of the novel's persona with startling reality. This novel, I believe to be overlooked, but don't make that mistake, do read it and savor its passionate story--just undermine the romance.

"A highly charged romantic thriller" - New York Herald TribuneThe sheltered Oxford-raised, quiet and reserved young Jennifer Silver journeys to the High Pyrenees in search of her half-French cousin who has been recuperating in a convent. A WWII-wounded former student of her professor father and brilliant musician follows her there for his own personal reasons. Just as they are rejoined, they become caught up in intricate webs of danger and criminal intrigue. From the back cover- "She had come to the convent - a brooding cluster of ancient buildings nestled deep in the wild upper reaches of the French Pyrenees - to find her young cousin, Gillian. But the Convent of Our Lady of the Storms was not like others. There was something strange and frightening about the place...something that gave off an aura of evil, of hidden, violent things...They told her Gillian was dead, but she did not believe them. Searching for the truth meant trouble. She did not know, until too late, it also meant ...murder."As always, Mary Stewart's settings are so spectacular and described in such detail that I can see, smell and touch as clearly as if I were there as well. It is because of this superb sense of detail that a half dozen reads may not even be enough.

Everyone has suffered from unrequited love, and a worry thatthe love your partner feels is not a promise of forever. It is amystery, and the plot is twisted enough to seduce the mystery-lover,who seeks to escape a rather boring reality. There is also an undercurrent that is reminiscent of a fable, with the same moral Oscar Wilde attempted to teach us. Not to make ideals of men, for that will surely destroy them END