Mary Stewart Dead at 97

British novelist Mary Stewart, credited with creating the romantic suspense genre, died on May 9th at her home on the west coast of Scotland. She was 97.

Most popular in the 1960s through 1980s, Stewart is credited as one of the pioneers of the romantic suspense genre. Best known for her Merlin series, Stewart wrote more than 20 novels over her long career. From the New York Times:

“Mary Stewart sprinkled intelligence around like stardust,” the columnist Melanie Reid wrote in the Glasgow newspaper The Herald in 2004. “Every chapter was headed with a quote from Marvell or Shakespeare or Browning. The fineness of her mind shone through.”

Ms. Stewart was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1968, received the Frederick Niven Literary Award from the Scottish chapter of International PEN for “The Crystal Cave” and in 2006 was given a lifetime achievement award by the Scottish Parliament.