I can’t count the many times that I’ve read My Brother Michael. It’s one of the less romantic of Mary Stewart's romantic suspense novels. But it always seems to grab me and move me quickly toward the brilliant blinding end that is nothing short of perfect.
Of course all of Stewart’s novels are favorites of mine, some more so than others. I read Nine Coaches Waiting first, my mother passing me along a dog-eared copy that I quickly fell in love with. Then there was Wildfire at Midnight and The Moonspinners, both of which captured my imagination. No one does it better than Mary Stewart when it comes to classic romantic suspense.
My Brother Michael opens with Camilla Haven’s lament that “Nothing ever happens to me.” Vacationing in Greece after the breakup of a long-term engagement, Camilla feels as if she isn’t up to an adventure even if one came her way, though she longs to have one. With her finances strained from over-indulging along her trip, Camilla is trying to find a way to get to Delphi as cheaply as possible.
Sitting in a café in Athens and finishing her letter to a friend back at home in England Camilla is mistaken for another woman, Simon’s Girl, and given a car to drive to Delphi. Since Camilla wanted to see Delphi anyway this coincidence is too much to pass up and she assumes the identity of Simon’s Girl and sets out in search of this mysterious Simon. Not to mention that the man who dropped the car off said it was a matter of “life and death” and how could any girl possibly resist that?
When Camilla finds Simon she discovers that he did not order a car up from Athens nor does he know why it would be considered a matter of “life and death.” But Simon takes Camilla under his wing and takes the responsibility of the car off her tired shoulders. Together the two investigate who could have ordered the car and why they would have used his name.
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