TOUCHSTONE
Laurie R. King
Bantam
Thriller
Hardcover: 9780553803556
Paperback: 9780553586664

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 current fiction market. Her portrayal of post-World War I Cornwall and the ancient, fading estate of the landed gentry evokes an historic time of change in England’s social structure. For fans who enjoy King’s glorious prose, establishing time, place and characters, TOUCHSTONE is rich in beautifully crafted descriptions of a time and society long gone.

    --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

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