The Tempest

Today Chicagoland is anticipating extremely high winds, stormy weather and possible funnel clouds. This is not my favorite weather, but it puts me in mind of great literature, of course. Aside from remembering Shakespeare, who wrote of storms that were harbingers of significant events, I'm trying to hearken back to my favorite mystery writers, and whether or not I can recall great storm scenes.

One that leaps to mind happens at the end of Mary Stewart's THE IVY TREE; her heroine must brave a storm to save two lives, and ultimately she risks her own. It is a terrific scene, spanning a couple of chapters because it is the climax of the novel.

Can anyone recall another good storm scene in a mystery?

Shakespearean Storms in Chicago

This has been one tempestuous week in Chicagoland; today's storms felled trees all over town, roofs blew off, windows blew in. The tree in our front yard bowed lower than I had ever seen it bow, as if in submission to the unusually strong winds. It reminded me of the storms in Shakespeare, which were often augurs of significant events: the deaths of kings, imminent murders, the plots of traitors.

I was reminded, too, that Cassius, in Julius Caesar, walked the streets at night braving a storm like this, baring his chest and daring the lightning to strike it. His theory was that with Caesar in power, all was not right with the world, and the storm was an instrument of "fear and warning."

And of course the Tempest raised by Prospero was meant to be a storm of vengeance against the men who had betrayed him. Considering all of the rain we've had this week--and I'm talking violent rain, with weird lightning and odd-sounding thunder--I might even believe it if someone told me that the current weather was someone's act of revenge.

On the other hand, it's beautiful in a wild and frightening way. As long as I keep my roof and our tree doesn't fall on our house, I think we might make it through with a renewed appreciation for nature and some very green grass.