Madam, Will You Talk?, 22

Charity Selborne, a lovely war widow, and her irreverent artist friend, Louise Cray, arrive in the South of France expecting a conventional holiday. The vistas of Provence delight them, and Charity soon meets David, a young man of 13 who is having trouble with his dog. He introduces himself and Charity is charmed—until she senses a terrible maturity behind his grave eyes and shortly hears the rumors about his father. From this point on, the tension mounts steadily until it reaches the breaking point, while the thirsty summer heat, the noise of cicadas, and the dust of country roads all contribute to the superb realism of Mary Stewart’s very first novel. Combining her keen wit, zest for adventure, and eye for the details that make her characters interesting and memorable, Mary Stewart leads the reader on a swift, breathless chase that turns this quiet story into a masterpiece of romantic suspense.

Mary Stewart was the author of 20 novels, including The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Wicked Day, The Last Enchantment, Nine Coaches Waiting, The Ivy Tree, The Moon-Spinners, My Brother Michael, Rose Cottage, This Rough Magic, Wildfire at Midnight, and Thornyhold. Katherine Hall Page is the Agatha Award–winning author of more than 20 novels, including The Body in the Attic, The Body in the Big Apple, The Body in the Moonlight, and The Body in the Piazza.