Stormswift (Charnwood Library) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Madeleine Brent (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd; Large Print edition edition (July 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0708982719
• ISBN-13: 978-0708982716
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full-throated historical romance -- preposterous at times but great fun, November 2, 2006

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stormswift (Hardcover)

"Madeleine Brent" is a pseudonym for Peter O'Donnell, the author of the Modesty Blaise novels (and comics). As Brent he wrote a number of historical romances. This is one of the later ones, and a pretty good one.

Stormswift opens in Afghanistan in the 1880s. Jemimah Lawley, the spoiled daughter of a British civil servant who was killed in the Kabul massacre in 1979, has spent the past couple of years in an isolated "kingdom", at first as the "wife" of the local pacha, then as the slave of the local doctor, a Greek/English man who has himself been a captive of the local Kafirs for decades. After her rape by the pacha, who then discarded her after she failed to provide him a child, she has adapted well to being the doctor's assistant, and she is no longer spoiled. But then she is sold to another local pacha -- this one with a reputation for extreme sadism. She decides to escape, and the doctor arranges for her to go in the company of a peddler, Kassim.

Kassim, it turns out, is not what he seems. He hates Jemimah, out of resentment for his obligation to rescue her. But in the end she saves his life -- and she learns that he is actually a British spy posing as an Afghan. And she hears his mysterious delirious reference to "Melanie ... Stormswift ... bitch-goddess".

Jemimah returns to England, only to find that an imposter claiming to be her has taken over her home. She ends up touring the countryside in a Punch and Judy show ... the beginning of a journey that will lead her -- by a series of coincidences (mostly in the end reasonably well explained, I should say) -- to meet once again Kassim, and to learn the secret of Stormswift -- and to learn who her true love is -- and to even help another long lost friend ...

It is certainly in many ways quite preposterous. But it is also great fun. There is no point complaining about the contrivances involved -- they are part of the deal, and "Brent" embraces them thoroughly rather than trying to make this any sort of naturalist novel. I will say that the end is a bit unsatisfying -- Jemimah is put in a wrenching personal situation (there are, perhaps unusually, two quite worthwhile candidates to be her true love) which ends up resolved very conveniently -- the whole finish is a bit abrupt, really. Still, fun work.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A girl who escapes from Afganistan and returns to England., June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Stormswift (Mass Market Paperback)

This is another well written, intelligent novel about a young woman's adventures. For anyone who enjoys Madeline Brent's novels, you might be interested to know that this is the pseudonym of Peter O'Donnell, who wrote the "Modesty Blaise" novels and, as far as I know, still creates the comic strip of the same name, published in England. Although the subject material is very different - spy adventure rather than romance, the writing style has the same high quality, intricate plotting, and unexpected turns of events.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I have been reading MB's novels over and over for 20 years., April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Stormswift (Mass Market Paperback)

Madeline Brent wrote too few books for her avid readers. I've managed to get my hands on a copy of each of her novels, and I read them over and over. I re-read her novels when I want to be sure I will enjoy myself thoroughly and become totally wrapped up in good writing. I have always enjoyed the plots which move from foreign worlds such as Tibet and China to England, and then back to the foreign country to fulfill the destiny of the heroine. I first read Merlin's Keep when I was twelve and have been hooked ever since. I just wish there were more great Madeline Brent books out there.