The Sea Raven

By Annabel Frazer

This short story is a continuation of the short story The Lost One and novella The Wind Off The Small Isles by the much-loved writer Mary Stewart. It borrows some of the characters of those two stories in order to ‘finish’ the tale, in an attempt to satisfy the author’s original intention of creating three ‘Perdita’ stories.

Perdita West was first seen in The Lost One (a short story which itself was 'lost' for many years) as a young woman tackling a dangerous situation in a lonely country spot in Northumberland, aided by her irrepressible mother. In Wind Off The Small Isles, Perdita took a job as an author's assistant and travelled to the picturesque island of Lanzarote, where she explored the island's history, was swept off her feet by a dashing young man and got herself into a dangerous situation when skin-diving in underwater caves. The Sea Raven picks up Perdita's story some years later, when she makes a ferry journey to the Shetlands and unexpectedly meets an old acquaintance...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Annabel Frazer
• Release date: Feb 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370539598

Annabel Frazer

Under the assumed name I use for being a wife, mum, cat-owner and civil servant, I live in Berkshire, England. I write in the genres I love reading myself - crime detection, thriller, adventure, suspense. My first novel, The Day The Earth Caught Cold, was an apocalyptic thriller with a climate change theme. The novel I'm currently working on, The Crooked Man, is a more traditional detective story with a dash of thriller. I love retro vintage crime and thriller tales and my novels, despite the inconvenient presence of the 21st century, often have a retro flavour. I like to believe that alongside cosy crime there is, or could be, a genre called cosy thrillers. If there was, that would probably be my genre. My favourite authors include Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle and Patricia Wentworth for crime and John Buchan and Ian Fleming for authors. I never subscribed to the idea that Ian Fleming was a 'man's writer'. But my biggest inspiration is probably Mary Stewart, whose adventurous suspense novels are adored by many. My latest project, The Sea Raven, is a homage to her in the form of a short story continuing the adventures of her heroine Perdita West, who features in her novella Wind off the Small Isles and a short story called The Lost One, itself lost for many years...

Book preview