Romantic Wednesdays: Mary Stewart, First Lady of Romantic Suspense

~posted by Marlene H.

Mary Stewart was arguably one of the pioneers of the genre that we now call romantic suspense. Before her, there was gothic horror, where the heroine inevitably does something stupidly dangerous and waits to be rescued, but that isn’t quite the same thing. And there was contemporary romance, where the entire story is about finding Mr. or Ms (except it was Miss in those days) Right.

Mary Stewart, who died on May 10, 2014, was the inspiration for generations of writers to make their heroines into women who had brains and courage, and didn’t always require a man to rescue them from the danger into which they inevitably found themselves. (Not that having a man partner with them to help them get out of hot spots wasn’t an excellent thing!)
Her romantic suspense books are comfort reads for many people, and writers from Joanne Harris (Chocolat) to Nicola Griffith (Hild) to Steven Brust (Jhereg) and Guy Gavriel Kay (River of Stars) have cited her as inspiration.

For a sample of her romantic suspense, try Nine Coaches Waiting, The Gabriel Hounds or Touch Not the Cat.

But the reason that so many fantasy writers (and readers) will remember her is for her Merlin trilogy. In mid-career she broke from her romantic mysteries and penned one of the best modern retellings of the Arthurian legends ever. The story was The Crystal Cave, and it set the King Arthur tales in a possible 5th century Britain, as well as bringing us the story from a completely different point of view; instead of starting from Arthur, Stewart chose to focus her story on Merlin. It’s Merlin’s dangerous childhood and destiny that we follow, and his perspective we view the life of the “Once and Future King”.

This tale, which continues in The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment, is an epic retelling of the Arthur story, tied into to a dangerous but terribly plausible background of the withdrawal of Rome from the British Isles.

To quote from The Last Enchantment: “My heart’s desire was always this, to hear, before I died, the music of the stars…” She brought that music of the stars to legions of readers in her career. Possibly she was helped by some of Merlin’s magic.