I’m excited to have found this fun meme, hosted by Freda’s Voice. The idea is beautifully simple: turn to page 56 of your book (56% in an eBook), and post a non-spoiler sentence or two from that page.
I have been dipping into Mary Stewart’s Wildfire at Midnight again this week. Published in 1956, this book is a murder-mystery set on the Isle of Skye in 1953 at the time of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in tandem with this there is the race to climb Everest. This climbing expedition is cleverly mirrored in the book by so much of the story being set on and about Skye’s Cuillin mountain range, described on the walkhighlands website as ‘ the most spectacular and challenging mountains in Britain. These are peaks of which dreams are made – and nightmares!’
Here we join Gianetta in the corridor of the remote hotel in which she is staying, at about 2am. She is already nervous at wandering the hotel so late at night – you’ll need to read the book to find out why – and then she hears something…
But there was something about the quality of the whispering that was oddly disquieting. It was as if the soft, almost breathless ripple of sound in the darkness held some sort of desperation, some human urgency, whether of anger or passion or fear, which communicated itself to me through the closed panels, and made the hairs prickle along my forearms as if a draught of chilly wind had crept through a crack in the door.
(Taken from Wildfire at Midnight, Hodder 1st edition, 1956, p56)
I thoroughly recommend this book for its suspense, characters and setting.
Wildfire at Midnight is definitely one of my favorites! 🙂
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Excellent! And your other favourites are…? 🙂
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Airs Above the Ground, This Rough Magic, Wildfire at Midnight and Thunder on the Right with a special shout out to Nine Coaches Waiting and Madam Will You Talk. 🙂
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Lovely selection! Thanks
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I thought I’d read everything by Mary Stewart but this one doesn’t sound familiar. This week I am spotlighting Say You’re Sorry by Melinda Leigh. Happy reading!
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Thanks, Kathy, I’ve taken a look at you blog and left a comment, Say You’re Sorry sounds nicely suspenseful. And I recommend you try Wildfire at Midnight, you are in for a treat!
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Great teases. It makes me want to know more.
sherry @ fundinmental Friday Memes
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Thanks Sherry, I’ve had a look at your interesting blog – unfortunately I can’t ‘Like’ your post unless I join Facebook (or am I doing something wrong?). Wildfire at Midnight is definitely worth reading if you get the chance.
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I love the descriptive writing! Puts you in the setting. Happy weekend!
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Thank you! I really like your Friday 56 meme, and hope to join in again. Have a good weekend!
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What a fun book. I love the old cover. I sometimes find that books published in the 1970s and before have issues around racism or sexism that I don’t like. Are you finding that here? My Friday Quotes
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Hi Anne,
It’s a wonderful book in my opinion!
It is set on a small Scottish island in the 1950s so, although we are not explicitly told this, I imagine the characters are all white. So no racist remarks, no poc.
The men tend to be the strong, silent, been through WWII, ‘women and children first’, type. There are also a couple of young women in the book whose sexuality is speculated upon: the elder is portrayed as rather unattractive and bossy towards the younger more feminine woman… Of its time but nothing in it to upset this feminist.
The thing you will notice most is that everyone smokes voraciously! I consider the book suspense-filled and an interesting slice of 1950s middle-upper class Britain.
I hope this helps! Do please let me know how you feel about Wildfire if you read it.
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Ooh great teasers! I am going to look into this one!
Here’s my Friday Reads
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Wonderful – please let me know what you think if you do read it!
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Thanks for sharing! It sounds like a great read!
Lauren @ Always Me
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Thanks Lauren, it is a wonderful classic read, I recommend it!
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