What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sea Raven
This short story (available free) follows on from two stories by the much-loved suspense author Mary Stewart. Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One (which was itself lost for many years) share the same heroine, the irrepressible Perdita West. A third story was planned but Mary Stewart sadly never wrote it. You can find out more about these two stories on their GoodReads page.
The Sea Raven is an attempt to fill that gap with a short tale once more featuring Perdita West and set some years after Wind Off The Small Isles. Set in the late 1960s, the action takes place mostly aboard a ferry travelling from the mainland of Scotland to the Shetland Islands.
The Sea Raven is an attempt to fill that gap with a short tale once more featuring Perdita West and set some years after Wind Off The Small Isles. Set in the late 1960s, the action takes place mostly aboard a ferry travelling from the mainland of Scotland to the Shetland Islands.
63 pages, ebook
First published February 6, 2018
13 people want to read
About the author
Annabel Frazer
5 books12 followersUnder the assumed name in which I do all my living, being a mum, cat-owner etc, I live in Berkshire, close to the river Thames.
I have three children who I scold for using devices too much, usually while I am peering at a small laptop screen.
I also have a cat who likes to follow me (and other people), not online, obv, but literally. He is becoming quite well-known in the local shops.
My favourite authors when I was at college where F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, TS Eliot and so forth. (You can tell I did a big section on the Modernists.) Nowadays you are much more likely to find me guiltily indulging in an old paperback Mary Stewart, Patricia Wentworth or Agatha Christie I have already read fifty million times.
I have three children who I scold for using devices too much, usually while I am peering at a small laptop screen.
I also have a cat who likes to follow me (and other people), not online, obv, but literally. He is becoming quite well-known in the local shops.
My favourite authors when I was at college where F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, TS Eliot and so forth. (You can tell I did a big section on the Modernists.) Nowadays you are much more likely to find me guiltily indulging in an old paperback Mary Stewart, Patricia Wentworth or Agatha Christie I have already read fifty million times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 14, 2019
3.75 stars. This is fanfiction (specifically Mary Stewart fanfic), but much better written than the norm. It's a short story whose main character, Perdita West, is in two obscure Stewart short works, The Wind off the Small Isles and "The Lost One," which is so obscure I haven't even read it yet. I do recommend reading WotSI before this one.
"The Sea Raven" is set about 14 years after the events of WotSI. Perdita is a single mother of a 13 year old daughter, Stella, and has never married. Perdita's mother prevails on her to join her for a vacation in the Shetland Islands, a subarctic area in northern Scotland. When their plane to the island is grounded due to fog, Perdita and Stella take a ferry. That boat ride turns out far more interesting and stressful than Perdita had ever imagined!
Probably will be most enjoyable to Mary Stewart fans, but I thought Annabel did a great job. Full disclosure: she's a member of the Mary Stewart group on Goodreads that I moderate.
This story is on Smashwords to read online or download for free: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
"The Sea Raven" is set about 14 years after the events of WotSI. Perdita is a single mother of a 13 year old daughter, Stella, and has never married. Perdita's mother prevails on her to join her for a vacation in the Shetland Islands, a subarctic area in northern Scotland. When their plane to the island is grounded due to fog, Perdita and Stella take a ferry. That boat ride turns out far more interesting and stressful than Perdita had ever imagined!
Probably will be most enjoyable to Mary Stewart fans, but I thought Annabel did a great job. Full disclosure: she's a member of the Mary Stewart group on Goodreads that I moderate.
This story is on Smashwords to read online or download for free: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
April 14, 2025
3.5★
The late Mary Stewart wrote a short story & a novella about Perdita West (The Lost One & The Wind off the Small Isles) & was intending to write a third tale about her. This never happened, so massive Stewart fan Annabel Frazer wrote this novelette.
This was a fast paced, well written tale, which I really enjoyed. It didn't read like a Stewart at the peak of her game, but the author got round not having Stewart's evocative skills by having most of the action take place on a ferry going to the Shetland Islands.
My main reason for marking it down was that Annabel employed one of my least favourite romance tropes
But the author has generously made this free on Smashwords;
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
& well worth a read for those missing their Stewart fix!
The late Mary Stewart wrote a short story & a novella about Perdita West (The Lost One & The Wind off the Small Isles) & was intending to write a third tale about her. This never happened, so massive Stewart fan Annabel Frazer wrote this novelette.
This was a fast paced, well written tale, which I really enjoyed. It didn't read like a Stewart at the peak of her game, but the author got round not having Stewart's evocative skills by having most of the action take place on a ferry going to the Shetland Islands.
My main reason for marking it down was that Annabel employed one of my least favourite romance tropes
But the author has generously made this free on Smashwords;
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
& well worth a read for those missing their Stewart fix!
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
November 17, 2019
Very credible Mary Stewart pastiche.
I enjoyed this short story by Annabel Frazer and thought she evoked the writing style of the wonderful Dame Stewart quite well.
And it's free to download!
I enjoyed this short story by Annabel Frazer and thought she evoked the writing style of the wonderful Dame Stewart quite well.
And it's free to download!
November 20, 2019
3.5 stars
February 18, 2018
5 stars for this excellent continuation of Mary Stewart's Perdita stories.
The Sea Raven is a wonderful short story by Annabel Frazer, author of The Day the Earth Caught Cold. The author is allowing her story, as a tribute to Mary Stewart, to be read for free.
The original Perdita story is Mary Stewart's short story 'The Lost One', set among the hills of the English county of Cumbria, which was published in a British magazine for women in 1960. The second story is Stewart's novella set on the island of Lanzarote, called The Wind Off the Small Isles, and it was first published in 1968. Mary Stewart wrote of her intention to write a third Perdita story but, due to copyright issues which also prevented the re-issue of the first two stories during her lifetime, it never happened. The two Perdita adventures were published together for the very first time last year, as the paperback The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One.
But now, in The Sea Raven, we have a short story that continues Perdita West's adventures, as imagined by Annabel Frazer. The story begins some fourteen years after The Wind Off the Small Isles, as Perdita and her daughter Stella embark on a ferry journey from Aberdeen to Shetland. Just as Perdita and her mother's relationship is part of the charm of reading The Lost One, so Perdita and her daughter's relationship is a joy to read here - personally, I would love to read further Perdita-Stella sleuthing adventures in the future!
The Sea Raven ties together The Lost One and The Wind Off the Small Isles by mentioning, featuring and progressing characters from these stories - and look out for the appearance of other Mary Stewart creations too, I squeaked with joy when I encountered a character from Wildfire at Midnight aboard the Bressay ferry! The Sea Raven is an engaging story of suspense and mystery, with a frightening pursuit scene below deck, and there is romance, and some nice flashes of humour too. Annabel Frazer writes beautifully, and Perdita is an elegant heroine, making this story a lovely homage to Mary Stewart. I recommend this story to all fans of Mary Stewart, and to fans of good writing generally - and if you read this story before having read The Lost One and The Wind Off the Small Isles, I predict that you will want to go on to read those stories too.
Disclosure: in the interest of transparency, I'd like to point out that it was my Mary Stewart wordpress blog Mary Queen of Plots that pointed to the 'forgotten' short story 'The Lost One' and my correspondence with Mary Stewart that highlighted her intention to write a third Perdita story to form a 'book-length book' (see my blogpost https://marystewartreading.wordpress....). In that post, I also wondered who could write a third part to Perdita's story. I have come to know Annabel through my blog and I have encouraged her to take on that challenge. The Sea Raven has exceeded all my hopes and expectations.
The Sea Raven is a wonderful short story by Annabel Frazer, author of The Day the Earth Caught Cold. The author is allowing her story, as a tribute to Mary Stewart, to be read for free.
The original Perdita story is Mary Stewart's short story 'The Lost One', set among the hills of the English county of Cumbria, which was published in a British magazine for women in 1960. The second story is Stewart's novella set on the island of Lanzarote, called The Wind Off the Small Isles, and it was first published in 1968. Mary Stewart wrote of her intention to write a third Perdita story but, due to copyright issues which also prevented the re-issue of the first two stories during her lifetime, it never happened. The two Perdita adventures were published together for the very first time last year, as the paperback The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One.
But now, in The Sea Raven, we have a short story that continues Perdita West's adventures, as imagined by Annabel Frazer. The story begins some fourteen years after The Wind Off the Small Isles, as Perdita and her daughter Stella embark on a ferry journey from Aberdeen to Shetland. Just as Perdita and her mother's relationship is part of the charm of reading The Lost One, so Perdita and her daughter's relationship is a joy to read here - personally, I would love to read further Perdita-Stella sleuthing adventures in the future!
The Sea Raven ties together The Lost One and The Wind Off the Small Isles by mentioning, featuring and progressing characters from these stories - and look out for the appearance of other Mary Stewart creations too, I squeaked with joy when I encountered a character from Wildfire at Midnight aboard the Bressay ferry! The Sea Raven is an engaging story of suspense and mystery, with a frightening pursuit scene below deck, and there is romance, and some nice flashes of humour too. Annabel Frazer writes beautifully, and Perdita is an elegant heroine, making this story a lovely homage to Mary Stewart. I recommend this story to all fans of Mary Stewart, and to fans of good writing generally - and if you read this story before having read The Lost One and The Wind Off the Small Isles, I predict that you will want to go on to read those stories too.
Disclosure: in the interest of transparency, I'd like to point out that it was my Mary Stewart wordpress blog Mary Queen of Plots that pointed to the 'forgotten' short story 'The Lost One' and my correspondence with Mary Stewart that highlighted her intention to write a third Perdita story to form a 'book-length book' (see my blogpost https://marystewartreading.wordpress....). In that post, I also wondered who could write a third part to Perdita's story. I have come to know Annabel through my blog and I have encouraged her to take on that challenge. The Sea Raven has exceeded all my hopes and expectations.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews