Fieldnotes:
UK-Northumberland, Whitescar Farm, Contemporary (p.

1 Case of Mistaken Identity
1 Farm in Northumberland at the Heart of It All
1 Ailing and Rather Tyrannical Grandfather
3 Potential Heirs, of which:
1 Long-Missing
1 Rather Flighty
1 Hard-working but Entitled and Menacing Cousin
Scheming Over the Will

1 Symbolic Ivy-Choked Oak Tree
1 Estate Destroyed by Fire
1 Secret Love Affair
1 Moonlight Meeting
Letters Hidden in a Tree
3 (?) Attempted Murders (maybe)

1 Charming and Kindhearted Scot with a fondness for Kittens
1 Excellent Scene with Cats and Sandwiches
Roman Stones
1 Race Through the Sodden Countryside
1 Wild Horse

The Short Version:
When a young woman hiking by Hadrian's Wall (by the Sycamore Gap - which made me a bit melancholy) is taken by a menacing Irishman to be his long-absent cousin Annabel Winslow, a scheme unfolds between them. Mary agrees to come to Whitescar farm and pretend to be Annabel to steer their grandfather to leave the inheritance to (the aptly named) Con. With copious references to the novel Brat Farrar (where something similar takes place), the scheme seems successful, but there is far more at stake here - why did Annabel leave in such a tizzy? how can Mary/Annabel keep her cousin Julie safe? will the irascible grandfather stop playing games with them over the inheritance before he dies? Can Mary/Annabel pull off the deception long term?

It's a twisty Gothic romance as Mary Stewart excels with menacing menfolk, a house/estate, storms that create high drama, and a rather charming scene slipping sandwiches to a cat hiding underneath an armchair. I wanted the love interest to be Donald Seton, the kind-hearted archaeologist with a tendre for Julie, as I wanted to see more of him. The actual reunited lovers are fine if uninspiring. There is an excellent amount of barely-contained menace, and I enjoyed puzzling my way through the novel. ( )

Ik vond het best wel een traag en saai boek. Wel mooi taalgebruik en veel beschrijvingen ( )

I didn't really get into this until probably halfway through or so...it puzzled me as to whom I was supposed to like, whom I was supposed to trust. Then a plot twist made things a little clearer. It wasn't as gripping as a couple of the other Mary Stewart books that have kept me up of nights to find out what happens, but it did pick up some steam toward the ending. ( )

I was so enamored of Mary Stewart’s writing when I was a teenager that I would hide when I read them so that I could pretend not to hear my older sister calling me to do chores. I am almost that enchanted with them this second time around, but it is now a husband who keeps trying to pry me away.

The Ivy Tree can easily be placed among my favorites of the mystery/romances. It is complicated enough to keep you guessing and every time you think you have figured it out for sure, Mary Stewart makes you guess again. It is based on a fairly common device, the virtual twin stranger who impersonates the real heiress, but while the device might be common the writing and the deft handling of the situation is not. On a trip to Northumberland, Mary Grey of Canada is assailed by a handsome, but somewhat frightening, Connor Winslow, who mistakes her for his cousin, Annabel, who has been missing and believed dead for some eight years. At loose ends and down on her luck, Mary is persuaded to impersonate the aforesaid Annabel and help Connor get the inheritance he is (in his eyes) entitled to.

What ensues is a thrilling, twisting ride in the style that only Mary Stewart can conjure. Few writers can engage all the senses in their writing, but for me Mary Stewart does this consistently.

I was very still. Close overhead I heard the scratch and rattle on the sloping roof tiles, then the throaty murmur as the pigeons settled back again to sleep. From the garden below came the smell of lilac. A moth fluttered past my cheek, and a bat cut the clear sky like a knife. Down in the neglected garden-grass the black and white cat crouched, tail whipping, then sprang. Something screamed in the grass.

And, one might certainly think of Mary Stewart’s work as more fun than thought, but I find that is a deception. She peppers her work with literary allusions, thoughtful humor, and tidbits of wisdom.
People ought to avoid pain if they can, like disease...but if they have to stand it, its best use might be that it makes them kinder. I think that is a pretty astute observation.

There are a couple of incidents in this novel involving a cat that I truly delighted in. They made the book stand apart for me as being quite special. Who doesn’t love an author who shows an affinity with the animal kingdom, and the quickest way to make me trust a character is make him kind to animals. Which might explain why I was so taken with a fairly minor character, by name of Donald Seton, who added warmth, humor, steadiness and dignity to the tale.

Finally, there is the symbolism of the Ivy Tree itself, a prodigious oak that has been suffocated by the parasitic ivy that covers it. A thing that is beautiful on the outside, but rotten within (like a certain character in this book), evidence that something that appears strong may just be a crumbling weakness, and a reminder that love and desires that cannot be shown publicly, but must be hidden away, can be dangerous.

In my quest to re-read all the Mary Stewart canon, I am glad I did not miss The Ivy Tree. If I were stranded on a desert island with a trunk containing all the works of only two authors, knowing I would have to read them over and over again for the rest of my life, I might well pick Shakespeare and Mary Stewart and be a happy camper.
( )

A truly excellent read, but not the book I was expecting. I chose this book as my first bingo book because I was looking for something that would trip along at a fast clip, and typically Mary Stewart and the romantic suspense genre of her time generally do clip along as a good pace.

But The Ivy Tree doesn't. This is a slowly paced, slowly building romantic suspense with a damn unreliable narrator, and I really dislike unreliable narrators. So really this was not the book I was looking for so I found myself very impatient but at the same time, I was completely unable to put it down. Is she or isn't she? Did they or didn't they? Will he or won't he? And really, what the hell is up with creepy Lisa???

I'd have liked to have gotten more about Adam; given his role, Stewart doesn't allow us to get to know him at all, and I don't think Lisa's full potential of totally creepy was explored, but otherwise, in spite of not being what I thought it would be, this is really a riveting read. ( )