Touchstone

by Laurie R. King

Book Overview

Hailed for her rich and powerful works of psychological suspense as well as her New York Times bestselling mysteries, Laurie R. King now takes us to a remote cottage in Cornwall where a gripping tale... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553803557
• ISBN13: 9780553803556
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 548 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

You Just Don't Get It...

I will not belabor this review with plot analysis that stays within the framework of the book as it is. I have thought Laurie R. King to be among the most brilliant writers of our day. While making use of historical events from the 1920's. It involves the haves vs the have-nots. the rich against the poor, the struggle of the classes, the proper distribution of wealth. the potential for a revolution against the wealthy, the secret acts of the police behind the scenes to manipulate events whether legal or not.... get the picture? This book, while being a very complex, slow developing plot, comes to a blistering, page-turning, unexpected conclusion. However, it is also, intended or not, perhaps the best critique of the Bush administration in book form today. I suggest those of you with patience and intellect start reading and realize what a brilliant, entertaining, non-partisan commentary this novel is of American society when it was written. The current repression could not have been anticipated by Ms. King. It's BRILLIANT! READ IT!

One of my favorites this year...

I've been a fan of King for a while, and love the Mary Russel books. With no new Russel book, I checked out Touchstone, and loved it. It's not light -- espionage, anarchy, and the aftereffects of WWI don't make very good beach reading -- but this is one of the few books of the year that I finished reading and then immediately put into the hands of a friend to read. The characters stuck with me, and caused me to think more deeply than the usual historical mystery. Pick this up for a challenging, thought-provoking, gripping read.

wow, you king readers are tough

ok, maybe this is not great and eternal literature, but it was a fun and exhilarhating ride. i mean, at this point you have given it the same score as dianna raybourn, which is ridiculous. i am a long time king fan and i think this is one of her best.

Rich in beautifully crafted descriptions of a time and society long gone

Laurie R. King's writing signature is to weave a rich tapestry out of deeply complex personalities and events in panoramic settings, especially in her stand-alone novels. So it is in TOUCHSTONE, where fans will revel in a virtual re-creation of post-World War I England. Manor houses are still owned by the peerage and looked after by a servant staff, smaller and less formal than in Victorian times but nonetheless a steadying presence. Industry's need for coal has outstripped the meager wages and dangerous working conditions of the miners, who have not progressed in 50 years, so the Labour Party and the coal miners are readying for a major strike, fomenting revolution. Social upheaval between the classes has divided even within families steeped in centuries of privilege. The stage is set for a suspenseful gathering of workers, titled members of Parliament and a charismatic American labor leader, Richard Bunson, who has arrived in England to stir the fires of revolution. An American FBI agent, Harris Stuyvesant, is dispatched to England in pursuit of Bunson, a suspected terrorist, who is implicated in several bombings in the United States. Bunson has attracted a large following in Great Britain at the outset of the coal union strike of 1926, not the least of which is his mistress, Lady Laura Hurleigh, daughter of the Duke of Hurleigh whose lineage spans centuries of English history. Her close friend, Sarah Grey, also involved in the labor movement, has a brother, Bennett Grey, a wounded war veteran whose senses have been elevated to an exquisite and torturous level from a brain injury suffered in battle. At the hospital where he underwent rehabilitation, he was subjected to experimentation by a diabolical government psychologist, turning him into an emotional time bomb. An ability to ascertain if people are lying or telling the truth has turned him into a human lie detector, and his psychologist began using him as a valuable asset to British Intelligence during the war. In a violent outburst, Grey attacks his tormentor and escapes to an isolated, primitive Cornwall farm. Agent Stuyvesant is directed to Captain Grey by his Machiavellian inquisitor who dangles Grey as bait to Stuyvesant, hoping he will lead him to his hideaway. The doctor has his own plans for bringing Grey back to the hospital to use him in the interests of national welfare, an act that will destroy Grey's mental and physical health. When Stuyvesant and Grey meet, Grey is sympathetic to Stuyvesant's cause and introduces him to his sister. Together, they stumble into a tangled web of intrigue, violence and revolution at Hurleigh Manor. Bunson has managed, through Lady Laura's help, to set up a secret summit meeting between mining officials, labor officials and the British Prime Minister to help settle the strike. The fateful summit brings the principal characters together for a rip-roaring suspenseful climax. Laurie R. King is one of the most eloquent writers of suspense in the

superb historical

By April 1926 although several years have passed since the armistice ended the combat the United States and England are still recovering from the War to End all Wars. Three bombs went off in a relatively short time in the United States causing much damage and killing innocent people. Harris Stuyvesant is determined to catch the bomber, not because he is a Bureau of Investigation agent but because one of the devices turned his favorite brother into a vegetable. He tracks the evidence to up-and-coming charismatic leftist politician, Richard Bunsen. Trying to get close to the man he plays five degrees starting with meeting Aldous Carstairs who sends him to a former patient of his Bennet Grey whose sister Sara is friendly with Lady Laura Hurleigh who is Richard's lover. Bennet was injured in the war and came through with certain abilities. He is a human lie detector and has a sense of what people are thinking and planning. He agrees to go with Harris to a Hurleigh weekend party. Tensions are high because the miner's are going on the strike and a general strike is planned to bring the government down. Lady Laura is planning a weekend where the two sides can talk away from the noise of the public and media but there is another agenda being played, one Harris intends to stop. TOUCHSTONE is a thick juicy story that shows England between the two world wars and how the government feels about the unions. Harris is in England to bring vigilante justice to the bomber and ends up falling for Sarah. He comes to care for Bennet and tries to rescue him from Carstairs clutches. Carstairs wants to be the power in the shadows that steers England on a course that seems acceptable on the surface but is deviously deceptive. Laurie R King creates fascinating characters and places them in several subplots so that the reader understands what motivates them. Harriet Klausner