Wildfire at Midnight

[1] Stewart herself described the book as "an attempt at something different, the classic closed-room detective story with restricted action, a biggish cast, and a closely circular plot".

[2] Fashion model Gianetta Brooke leaves her usual glamorous surroundings to go on holiday to the Scottish island of Skye, only to find that her ex-husband, writer Nicholas Drury, is staying at the same hotel in Camasunary.

After two murders take place locally, suspicion falls on the hotel guests, who include an aging "femme-fatale" star stage actress, a mountaineer, a possessive climber and her ingenue apprentice, a jealous wife and philandering husband, an old acquaintance of Gianetta's and Nicholas's, a writer of travel guides, and a handsome local versed in pagan folklore.

Gianetta, above suspicion due to her more recent arrival at the hotel, finds herself divided when assisting the police, torn between old loyalties, new sympathies, and her civic duty.

In 1953 London, Gianetta Brooke, a top fashion model, needs a break and wishes to get away from the crowds for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

They discuss the awe-inspiring magnificence of the mountains, and the conversation turns to the ongoing Edmund Hillary expedition to climb Mount Everest.

Gianetta learns that days before on Mount Blahven, local Heather Macrae was found ritually murdered, with throat cut, by a bonfire, with jewelry and possessions in a pile by her body.

In the library, Gianetta finds a book on ancient myths and folklore, The Golden Bough, with a postcard bookmarking a passage that describes a ritual human sacrifice with a bonfire.

The mystery component blends 1953 news events with mountaineering, druid mythology and pagan ritual, along with conflicting views about the conquering of nature: heroic progress or human arrogance?