The Ivy Tree

By: Mary Stewart

Narrated by: Amy Molloy

Mary Stewart, one of the great British storytellers of the 20th century, transports listeners to rural Northumberland for this tale of romance, ambition and deceit - a perfect fit for fans of Agatha Christie and Barbara Pym.

Whitescar is a beautiful old house and farm situated in Roman Wall country. It will make a rich inheritance for its heirs, but in order to secure it, they enlist the help of a young woman named Mary who bears remarkable resemblance to missing Whitescar heiress Annabel Winslow. Their deception will spark a powder keg of ambition, obsession and long-dead love.

The ivy had reached for the tree 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....

©1961 Mary Stewart (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critic reviews

"There are few to equal Mary Stewart." (Daily Telegraph)

"Mary Stewart is magic." (New York Times)

"One of the great British storytellers of the 20th century." (Independent)

Ms Stewart is quite the wordsmith

I loved this book. Ms Stewart has such a gift for describing the setting....you feel as though you are physically there with the main characters. Amazing story, well crafted from beginning to end.

Wonderful Tale!

Mary Stewart has such remarkable gifts, and this story shows her skills in a new light. It will surprise and shock you, but the story weaves its way through, like you are living the experience shared with the characters. I empathize with all the characters in various ways, it was hard to really hate any of her characters completely. The depth of the human condition and deeper complexity was present for this story in a way some of her other novels haven’t been, from the group of her books I’ve read so far. I also loved “The Moon Spinners”, “The Moon Spinners”, “This Rough Magic”, and “Nine Coaches Waiting”. The timing of the plot was slow, and the voice of the novel was slow so I thought Amy Molloy did a great job of capturing that sense of weariness and lethargy in the characters. She carried the voice of book well. It is more like a story in slow motion film rather than a quick car chase. It builds all the way until the end. There is a sense of things happening but it’s not revealed until Mary Stewart tells you what you need to know as it unfolds slowly. It was very fascinating to me, while not as much of a constant suspense tale, at least not on every page, I still couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Enjoy!

Oh the ending!

I love this author have read her books for 2 decades and they never get old.

Mary Stewart's Most Complex Heroine

As I've been making my way through the new recordings of Stewart's novels, I've noticed that they're mostly dated by the heavy smoking the characters do. In THE IVY TREE, the lead character does smoke a lot--especially in the first half of the book, but the lead character here also says really annoying things about women being hysterical BECAUSE they're women. She was pretty unlikeable in many ways throughout much of the book, making me wonder why so many readers had said that this was their favorite Mary Stewart. However, her moral compass seems pretty true--even if that might not always seem to be clear. She's not afraid of work, and she is not spoiled or selfish. She really cares about those she loves. She doesn't fall into the arms of just any handsome man who comes along either. In the end, I came to like her, but it was hard at first.

The complaints by many about the narrator, Amy Molloy, are true. Her ability to use a North American accent is clearly trained but inconsistent at best. There are strange pronunciations for any dialect of English I've heard. Who says "tomatoes" so that the "mat" rhymes with "cat"? Molloy does. I think many of these pronunciation problems such as the vowels in "careful" and "calm," come from Molloy's Irish background, but a good editor should have caught those. Why even choose an Irish actress when there are only two Irish characters in the book? I suspect there was no real editor. Worse than all the pronunciation problems was the tediously slow reading speed and the sheer lack of ability to read well, pausing so often in the incorrect places such as between an adjective and a noun. This is really disqualifying for an audiobook reader, and the publisher is to blame for not hiring any of many really good readers such as Jennifer Ikeda, who read very well and can handle accents too. I turned the speed to 1.25x to get through the slow reading speed.

In short, this is a very good novel, with very good writing, and a complex heroine. The narrator, however, leaves much to be desired. I won't buy any more books with Amy Molloy listed as narrator.

Not the best Of Mary Stewart..

I am fond of Mary Stewart books, but this one was just way too slow moving and the main protagonist, the female character, was just so wimpy and pacifistic that it was somewhat depressing to listen to her. The story could have been good, it had some interesting plot elements that could have worked, the characters were well drawn out, and the author tried, but it just wasn’t good. There are other Mary Stewart books that have some of the same flaws and yet are very good such as Wildfire at Midnight and Touch not the Cat. I highly recommend those.

Narrator

The narrator spoke in a low and slow tone. She mispronounced simple words and it was very distracting. An excellent story but sadly badly narrated.

One of Mary Stewart’s best

Story: 5 stars

Mary Stewart’s genius for suspense is on full display in The Ivy Tree.

A well-written, well-detailed, intricate plot where, at times, one finds oneself sympathetic towards each character in turn, even towards villain! This just goes to show the substance displayed in her characters. We understand the motivations and the underlying morals in each person who has a vital role in the story.

As per usual, her heroine is an astute observer of facial expressions, feelings expressed and hidden, voice fluctuations, etc.

Narrator: 4 stars

I’m American, but have visited Canada a number of times, so, I've heard the accent. This one sounds exaggerated, somehow. I leave it to the true Canadian‘s out there to say for certain if the accent is authentic. The Irish and Scottish accents are difficult for me to differentiate between, but sound like the real thing. The British accents sound authentic to me, as well, but I can't tell the difference between the London accent and the Northern British accent.

In all fairness to the narrator, the accents in the book are supposed to be very subtle. Conn's Irish accent is only supposed to be noticeable when he's upset or excited...That makes it difficult for a voice actor to do justice to; the listener might mistake it for someone else if the accent isn't consistent throughout.

The narrator has a slow, deliberate way of reading that, to my ear, sometimes lacks emotion. But, in her defense, Amy Molloy really does a very good job of acting a long and complex book! I was never confused about who was speaking and I was able to follow the plot easily. Her male voices are believable and she has a number of "voices" in her repertoire.

*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special

Speed up the recording

One of Mary Stewart’s best. The reader is pretty bad unless you speed up the recording. I found that 1.3x worked well. After I sped it up, it was just fine.

Very poor narration

Why did the publisher choose such a poor (and apparently inexperienced) narrator? Ugly accent, sounds US American, not really either Canadian or British. I have purchased several other of the new Mary Stewart books, including This Rough Magic, which I think is the best of all, and the narration was much better

Well-written story, but not my favorite

The plot is fascinating and the author does an excellent job of bringing everything full circle at the end. However, this is my least favorite of the Mary Stewart books I have read (about 7-8 at this point). The female protagonist is involved in a deception, therefore I have difficulty identifying with her as I am able to do on at least some level in the other stories of Ms. Stewart. And the main male character is deeply flawed, perhaps even a sociopath, without the ability to feel real affection for others. It is hard to read about them, and especially to listen to them, for so long. Furthermore, this narrator is not the best. The main character has lived in the US and Canada, so no longer has an English accent, but I find the American accent a bit off putting. There have been different narrators for each of the previous books I’ve listened to so far, and all have done very well to excellent. With each, first person is used for the female protagonists, and it seemed as if I were drawn in to listen to the character tell her story. For this audio, I was very aware of listening to a narrator present a book. I think this audiobook was less enjoyable for me due to both the premise of the plot and the narration. Others may appreciate them better than I, however.