As before, it was full of sounds, far fuller than when, on the ridge, I stood insulated by the air from the subdued and roaring life of the sea. I strained across the moving whispering darkness. And why does Sofia look so frightened of Gamble and her brother?Īnd what is the mystery of the Bay of Dolphins where the fates, the ones who spin the silver moon from the title, spin a silver full moon so that you might one night see the lost treasure ship at the bottom of the bay? Because treasure is involved, if not the one the Moon-Spinners reveal.

Then there is the attractive Tony Gamble who she meets at the hotel where he does the cooking, and the mysterious Stratos whose sister Sofia runs the inn and who only recently arrived from the West and despises the poverty and ignorance of his own people. This being Mary Stewart, the best of the writers of romantic suspense (and as good as any man in the adventure/suspense/adventure genre), you know things won’t be quite that simple, especially when Nicola runs into a strange man while exploring the island, a fugitive being hunted, and finds herself up to her neck in a mystery involving the attractive mysterious Englishman named Mark Langley hiding out on the mountain with a bullet wound and concerned for his younger brother Colin who has been missing since he was wounded. It seems a perfect holiday, beautiful setting, fine food, the sea, and a family reunion for the orphan Nicola. Nicola works for the British embassy, and for her holidays she is meeting her older cousin Frances Scorby, a naturalist who has written several books on flowers and who hopes to study local wild flowers.įrances, who she calls Aunt Frances, raised her. George, in the shadow of the White Mountains. So speaks young Englishwoman Nicola Ferris as she chides the couple that has given her a ride to the remote seaside village of Agios Georgios, St. She did it first and she did it best.“Even in Crete nobody’s going to murder a visitor.” 'She built the bridge between classic literature and modern popular fiction.

I'd rather read her than most other authors.' Harriet Evans 'A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. When the big white bird flew suddenly up among the glossy leaves and the lemon flowers, and wheeled into the mountain, I followed it. Nicola cannot abandon them and so sets off on a perilous search for their lost companion - all the while being pursued by someone who wants to make sure none of them leave the island. While on a walking holiday through the beautiful, deserted hills of Crete, Nicola Ferris stumbles across a critically injured Englishman, guarded by a fierce Greek.

' One of the great British storytellers of the 20th century' Independent Transport yourself to the idyllic hills of mid-century Crete in this tale of peril and intrigue, from the original queen of romantic suspense and author of Madam, Will You Talk?

The moon spinners book