The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart, for the 1961 Club

My first book for the 1961 Club (in which we read books published in a certain year), hosted this week by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, is The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart, an enthralling impersonation story set in Northumberland. Mary Grey, recently arrived from Canada, is sitting against Hadrian’s Wall, contemplating the countryside when she is accosted by a handsome man who thinks she is his cousin Annabel.

Unnerved by his sudden, angry appearance, she explains who she is and that she is just a tourist on her day off from waitressing in Newcastle. He introduces himself as Con Winslow and tells her his cousin left home eight years ago and never returned – and that she could be Annabel’s twin. He talks at length and suggests they stay in touch but Mary politely declines.

Several days later, Con’s sister Lisa tracks her down, first at the café where Mary works and then at her boarding house, and makes her an offer – Con wants her to pretend to be Annabel, come to the family farm, charm her dying grandfather, and then give her inheritance to Con. He offers will pay her for this deception because he fears the grandfather will leave the property to Annabel although he has managed it for years. Mary thinks the idea is crazy but she gets worn down by Lisa’s enthusiasm for the project and knows she could use the money. Con and Lisa spend the next three weeks prepping her for every situation, then bring her to Whitescar to reunite her with her ostensible grandfather. Mary’s conscience bothers her but when she tells Con she wants to withdraw from their plan, he persuades her to stay, despite her doubts. But how long can she maintain this masquerade without being discovered?

Hadrian's Wall

Stewart’s best known romantic suspense novels take place in exotic locations, which she describes enticingly: Provence, Greece, Austria, Lebanon and Syria, with a mystery or crime to pursue. This is set in Northern England where Stewart grew up and Mary Grey explains that she came out of curiosity because of family who had immigrated from the area, so it has a different feel. There are fewer lyrical depictions of nature but she does describe the ivy tree that gives the book its name:

Here a giant oak stood. It had been originally on the inside of the wall, but with the years it had grown and spread, pressing closer to the masonry, until its vast flank had bent ad finally broken the wall, which here lay in a mere pile of tumbled and weedy stone. But the power of the oak would be its undoing, for the wall had been clothed in ivy, and the ivy had reached for the tree, crept up it, engulfed it, till now the trunk was one towering mass of the dark gleaming leaves, and only the tree’s upper branches managed to thrust the young gold leaves of early summer through the strangling curtain. Eventually the ivy would kill it.

Like another famous impersonation story, Brat Farrar, the mystery here is whether the interloper can get away with it and why the missing person left/what happened to him or her in the first place. A skillful author (and, of course, Mary Stewart, one of my favorite authors and in this, her sixth book, is abundantly skilled, just like Josephine Tey) makes the reader care about the impersonator although we know they are dishonest and mercenary. I particularly like the relationship Mary develops with Julie, the cousin who was a child when Annabel left, and some believe that Julie’s boyfriend Donald is based on Stewart’s husband, an academic.

Library Journal said this “involved novel of impersonation and inheritance reads more like Daphne du Maurier” and Stewart’s “easy narrative style , her vivid descriptions of the Northumberland countryside, the sharp delineation of her stock characters, her neat, contrived resolution, and her impeccable good taste guarantee satisfaction to fans of the genre.” The comparison to du Maurier is interesting; as well, I think the reviewer is overly harsh – “contrived” is meant as a negative and I think the ending of this book (which I won’t reveal) is well done. I am happy to say this book is still in print.

Do you like impersonation stories as much as I do? Along with this one and Brat Farrar, I recommend Savannah Purchase, False Colours, The Likeness, The Prisoner of Zenda, and The Great Impersonation (which I read for the 1920 Club six years ago). Do you have a favorite I should read?

Title: The Ivy Tree
Author: Mary Stewart
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 1961
Genre: Suspense
Source: Personal copy

This is my 13th book for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.