Mary Stewart and her Mysteries Quiz

Answer: Young, female, sensible and loving.

Mary Stewart usually writes about intelligent young women of quiet habits and sensible natures. These heroines are remarkably alike, and are thrust into mysteries and adventures which usually take them by surprise.

Answer: Terri Sefton

Charity Selbourne is the heroine of "Madam, Will you Talk", Lucy Waring of "This Rough Magic" and Bryony Ashley of "Touch Not the Cat".

Answer: "This Rough Magic"

"This Rough Magic" is set on Corfu, an island sometimes suggested as the setting of "The Tempest". The title is a quote from that play. Miranda and Spiro are the (Greek) twin godchildren of an eccentric actor named Sir Julian Gale.

"Madam, Will you Talk" is set in France, "The Moonspinners" in Greece, but not on Corfu, and "Touch Not the Cat" mainly in England.

Answer: Her cousin Charles

Christy is in love with her cousin Charles, but hasn't quite realised it. Cousin romance occurs in another of Mary Stewart's books as well.

Adoni appears in "This Rough Magic", Max Gale is the hero of "This Rough Magic" and I made the other man up.

Answer: She doesn't know his true identity

Bryony has known her lover (whom she calls "Ashley") for years through their loving telepathic bond. She believes she might know him in the flesh, too, and that he is probably one of her cousins. Her main suspects are the twins, James and Emory Ashley, with an outside bet on Francis, their younger brother. In fact it turns out to be someone else entirely, a distant cousin.

Answer: Both concern missing persons who apparently show up years later.

Both books deal with imposture, and with characters apparently returning after a long absence. Both "returnees" know things that it seems only the missing person could know. However, in one case the "returnee" (Brat) is not the person he pretends to be, and in the other the "returnee" (Annabel) *is* the person she pretends, but she pretends she isn't. Confused? Brat and Annabel both have excellent reasons for caution. Someone is out to get them. Still, or again.

As for the twins - "Brat Farrar" has two sets, "The Ivy Tree" none.

Answer: "Thornyhold"

"Thornyhold" is one of Mary Stewart's later books, written after the Merlin series. It is slight but enjoyable, lacking the life-or-death situations of the early novels but touched with a kind of magic.

"Stormy Petrel" and "Rose Cottage" are also late books while "Wildfire at Midnight" is an early one.

Answer: "Touch Not the Cat"

In "Touch Not the Cat", Bryony and her new husband Rob are caught in a flood orchestrated by Bryony's twin cousins. This is one of Mary Stewart's most explicit love scenes (and that's not saying much!).

Answer: "The Gabriel Hounds"

"The Gabriel Hounds" have to do with the legend of the Wild Hunt. They are otherwise known as "Yell Hounds" in some stories. "This Rough Magic" is a quote from "The Tempest".

Answer: "Airs Above the Ground"

In "Airs Above the Ground", the heroine, Vanessa March, is married to Lewis throughout the story. In "Touch Not the Cat" Bryony and Rob are married for the last part of the story, and in "The Moon-Spinners" and "Thunder on the Right" the heroes and heroines don't actually marry in the book.