The Wind Off the Small Isles: Two enchanting stories from the Queen of the Romantic Mystery

Written by Mary Stewart

Narrated by Susie Riddell

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available for the first time in 40 years and perfect for fans of Anya Seton, Daphne du Maurier and Santa Montefiore.

'Now she would spell love her own way...'

In 1879, a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and most wild of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.

While snorkeling, a landslide traps Perdita in an underwater cave. No one knows where she is, so she can't count on a rescue. And her efforts to save herself will reveal the solution to a century-old mystery...

The Wind off the Small Isles is Mary Stewart's sweeping, romantic long-lost novella, finally being brought back to print in a beautiful, all new edition for the first time in more than four decades.

(P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Release date: Sep 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473642270

Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart was one of the 20th century's bestselling and best-loved novelists. She was born in Sunderland, County Durham in 1916, but lived for most of her life in Scotland, a source of much inspiration for her writing. Her first novel, Madam, Will You Talk? was published in 1955 and marked the beginning of a long and acclaimed writing career. In 1971 she was awarded the International PEN Association's Frederick Niven Prize for The Crystal Cave, and in 1974 the Scottish Arts Council Award for one of her children's books, Ludo and the Star Horse. She was married to the Scottish geologist Frederick Stewart, and died in 2014.

Reviews for The Wind Off the Small Isles

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This little novella is a gem. Stewart brings Lanzarote to life effortlessly. The 1879 story is extremely brief but memorable while the adventures of Perdita and Cora are picture perfect and often humorous. As a person who will not step foot underground, I can attest to the fact that the scenes in which Perdita is trapped in an underwater cave can raise your blood pressure. (I also think I had a death grip on the book.)

So much goodness in so few pages. No wonder Mary Stewart was a bestselling author back in the day. Other than the lack of today's electronic accoutrements, The Wind Off the Small Isles holds up every bit as well as it did when first published.

[herenya_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Wind off the Small Isles is very short (not even a hundred pages long), but it is vivid and dramatic. It involves the volcanic landscape of one of the Canary Islands, a hundred-year-old mystery, and two assistants (and general dogsbodies) of two different authors.
"That's what my employer says, too, and what's more, your job sounds very much the same as mine - p.a., chauffeur, dog, devil, and dairymaid, and whatever you call the person who is sent out to draw the fire."
Mary Stewart's writing - her use of language, the detail in which she draws her landscapes, the sorts of people her characters are - feels like an old, familiar friend. I have now read all of her romantic suspense novels, and whilst The Wind off the Small Isle's brevity means it is simpler (and perhaps more predictable) than some of her others, it did not disappoint.