Thunder on the Right

By: Mary Stewart

Narrated by: Ellie Heydon

From one of our most beloved authors, Mary Stewart, comes a thrilling tale set in a France as beautiful as it is deadly, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Barbara Pym.

High in the rugged Pyrenees lies the Valley of the Storms, where a tiny convent clings to the beautiful but lonely mountainside. Jenny Silver arrives seeking her missing cousin and is devastated when she learns of Gillian's death following a terrible car accident. But Jenny's suspicions are aroused when she's told the blue flowers ornamenting her cousin's grave were Gillian's favourite. Jenny knows Gillian was colour-blind - and so starts her mission to uncover what really happened to her.

The growl and roar of thunder rolled and re-echoed from the mountains, and the sword of the lightning stabbed down, and stabbed again, as if searching through the depths of the cringing woods for whatever sheltered there.

©1957 Mary Stewart (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic reviews

"A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. I'd rather read her than most other authors." (Harriet Evans)

"She built the bridge between classic literature and modern popular fiction. She did it first and she did it best." (Herald)

"One of the most stupendously successful authors ever." (Sunday Express)

Enjoyed

I love Ms Stewart’s stories. Enjoy hearing them over and over. Going to look for a new one.

So exciting! Wonderful setting for the story!

Mary Stewart is always such a great storyteller, and even though I tried to predict what would happen, I still couldn’t imagine how this one would finally end. The characters were so different and unique, she always describes them in such a vivid descriptive way. The location was so fascinating for this story, I could imagine every scene that was described by Stewart. Like in her later novel,“The Ivy Tree”, Stewart keeps the pace slow until the very end. However, the mystery to be solved is revealed very early on in the story. It is intriguing as a story at the beginning and then slowly builds to a thrilling conclusion. The events all make sense and come together then. I could see the gothic horror genre influence here, and she even referenced Mrs. Radcliffe’s novels. This reminded me of “Northanger Abbey” though, this story never went into a satire direction. Since it’s a work of fiction, some elements of the plot can’t be taken as literal possibilities sometimes, due to the fantastic nature of the events, but it’s very fun reading. Overall: Very enjoyable story and so well read by Ellie Heydon! I also loved her narration of “Nine Coaches Waiting”. It’s a great one to listen to following this one! Its a lovely story as well. It was also the next novel Mary Stewart published one year later after “Thunder on the Right”. I hope you enjoy this wonderful tale!

Classic Mary Stewart

Fun, suspenseful story. I love to re-read these classics which I grew up on.

Fascinating to be reminded of the social norms of the mid twentieth century while enjoying a good read.

wonderful

Great narrator, and interesting storyline! I am glad I did not listen to other people's comments.

Everything was superb except the theme

There’s a general sexist thread through most of Mary Stewart’s books which I can usually get over because I enjoy her style, characters, and plots. But in this one I could not like the main character. Her consuming hatred for one of the antagonists and sympathy for the other seem misplaced and throughly gendered. They’re both greedy and possessive, but I really feel like one was redeemed because he was a man loving a woman and the other was a woman loving a woman. Really well written otherwise and excellent performance, but if you’re sensitive about sexist and racist or nationalist themes, I would not recommend. The characterizations here did not age well.