This Rough Magic

by Mary Stewart

First published 1964

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4.2(15,510)

Unemployed actress Lucy Waring accepts her sister’s invitation to spend the summer on Corfu, where a celebrated actor has withdrawn from public life in a neighbouring villa. The apparent peace of the island breaks when a body is found and Lucy notices behaviour that cannot be explained as local accident or theatrical eccentricity.

Her curiosity draws her into a smuggling operation whose members exploit the coast, private boats and the assumptions made about foreign visitors. Shakespearean echoes and the island’s association with The Tempest deepen a suspense plot built from performance, deception and the new leisure culture of the post-war Mediterranean.