Stormy petrel

When Rose Fenemore sets out to meet her brother Crispin on the island of Moila off the west coast of Scotland, she looks forward to a quiet holiday in a natural paradise of seabirds and wild flowers. But things do not turn out so idyllically. Her brother's arrival is delayed, and the island's peace is shattered by the appearance one night of two men seeking shelter from a violent summer storm - men whose conflicting stories draw Rose into a web of menace and suspicion. Rose's discovery of the stormy petrels - the fragile, elusive birds who nest ashore but spend most of their lives flying close above the sea waves - comes to symbolize the confusion she feels about Ewen Mackay, the man known as the island's prodigal son, and about the man calling himself John Parsons, whose account of himself Rose has every reason to distrust. Moving through the arresting landscape of Scotland's fabled Western islands, The Stormy Petrel is an enthralling story of mystery and suspense, with a touch of romance and sheer good writing that is the hallmark of Mary Stewart's work.