Mary Stewart is an author who probably needs no introduction from me, but as my library has a number of her books which have sadly not circulated much or at all in the last decade (or longer) I'm afraid she's become lost in the stacks. Most of her books are still in print, however, so perhaps readers are buying rather than borrowing her work?
I read her Merlin Trilogy years ago (according to the Wikipedia, however, there are actually five books not just three?). They were my introduction to the King Arthur legend--the sorts of books you start and can't put down and eagerly move on to the next. Several years later I read The Ivy Tree, which I liked but with reservations. It left me with a favorable impression, however, as I've always meant to read more of her work, and as a matter of fact have just started reading My Brother Michael! (I know with looming due dates it's the last thing I should do, but what can I say, I lead a decadent life). I suppose it was this more than anything that made me think I needed to bring home one of her books from the library.
Airs Above the Ground has been on my wishlist for a long time thanks to its Austrian setting. "Vanessa March never thought to look for her missing husband in Vienna -- until she saw him in a newsreel shot there at the scene of a deadly fire. But her hunt for answers only leads to more sinister questions in a mysterious world of beautiful horses. And what waits for Vanessa in the shadows is more terrifying than anything she has ever encountered." The novel was published in 1965, but I'm not sure whether she uses a contemporary setting for her story (am guessing so). I'm very fortunate as I lived outside of Vienna for nearly a year when I was younger and have always loved the city. It seems like the sort of place that would serve as the perfect setting for novels left and right, but I rarely seem to come across it when looking.
Mary Stewart's novels combine exotic locales with suspense and romance and I believe she's noted for this sort of story. Airs Above the Ground was on the NYT bestseller list in both 1965 and 1966, but the paper didn't formally review her book. It seems as though she didn't need the additional press coverage. This is what a reviewer had to say about the book in a "new and notable" column:
"There are some books that it seems almost pointless to review: they are infallibly going to be best sellers even if no reviewer prints a single notice. I am sure that all of your have already ordered the latest Mary Stewart novel from your bookstore or reserved it at your library; and it's already on this week's best-seller list but still I'd like, even if needlessly, to express my own delight in Airs Above the Ground, if only out of gratitude to Miss Stewart for so charmingly brightening one day in a reviewer's life (and a day when I had to visit the dentist, at that)."
"As this column (with many others) has often observed, nobody sets forth the romantic feminine thriller with such grace and humor and vigor has Mary Stewart. This time her setting is Styria, and her theme is the legend-begetting beauty and perfection of the superbly bred and trained Lippizzaner horses--which ties in with many other colorful factors, including life in a small traveling circus and two superb chases, one (not for acrophobes) over the roof of a schloss and one along the track of a rack railway (and if you don't know what that is, let Miss S. enlighten you). This is one of Stewart's best--which means escape fiction at its most enchanting."
I wonder if Mary Stewart's books are enjoying something of a renaissance with the lovely new cover illustrations from Hodder & Stoughton in the UK? I've yet to get my hands on any of them, but I think I'll splurge at some point. A number of her books are published in the US by Chicago Review Press in equally nice (and atmospheric) editions. Or you could check the shelves at your local library, too!