Customer Reviews

Touchstone

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Union men and Stanley Baldwin and an FBI agent at King Arthur's court - what an unlikely mix. And yet King weaves all this and more into a tapestry as vivid as any hanging in the Victoria and Albert. If you've read bits and pieces about the General Strike of 1926, you will fill in some gaps with Touchstone, but don't confuse this with a book about an historical event.

This is a book about people. The Duke's daughter with a bone-deep sense of duty, the archetypal English gentleman whose body bears the wounds of the Great War and whose soul remains at some eternal Agincourt, the half-caste hero of the trenches caught in the warp and woof of the British class system - each one is going to break your heart, but never quite in the way that you expect.

Fair warning: the book is a slow start.

Until you begin to care about the people - about page 175 for me - the multiple agendas of the personal and the political seem too grim for recreational reading. But, if you are one of King's faithful readers, you will keep turning pages until smitten with the beauty of the settings - nature and art - and lulled into cozy fascination by the words and actions of pretty people in an exquisite landscape, England at its most magical. And then you are hooked. The mists of Avalon part and you see the players' political commitments as inevitable manifestations of their love of family, love of country.

Here we find politics and art and a love story - two, no, three love stories - and a family saga and (eventually) a truly nail-biting thriller. But you have to put in the time to get to know these people and their England. Like the house party that lies at the center of the book, the plot moves at a stately pace, seemingly random events and apparent digressions finally emerging as parts of a seamless whole, nothing wasted, something for every interest. The complexity of the characters comes as a surprise, since they first appear to be stock figures in a familiar painting. But, as the theme of visual art leads us from the big tapestry to the tiny vignette, the individuality of Laura and Harris and Bennett and Sarah and Richard glows from the canvas of the book with a fierce delicacy.

With rich allusions to the works of powerful witnesses for social reform - from Emma Goldman to Emily Wilding Davison - King frames Laura Hurleigh's world-world view with acuity and compassion, using the central figure of the American (whom we misjudge as badly as does the oily bad guy) to shoe-horn her readers into a conflict that could take place only in England. America is too new and too raw for such a story, while other European nations lack the solid backbone of an entitled aristocracy wedded to responsibilities above and beyond their own pleasure.

This is a tale of England's green and pleasant land and those who will not rest from mental - or physical - strife until they have saved it.

This is not one of King's Russell or Martinelli mysteries; this is a stand-alone thriller set in England shortly after the end of the first World War and the two most important things you should know about it are l. that the last 90 pages are absolutely gripping, and 2. that before you get there, you're going to have to slog through 458 pages of meticulously detailed descriptions, digressions and setup.

Few writers write descriptive material more beautifully than Laurie King. But she does have a tendency to overdo it. And never moreso than in this book. Example: It takes our protagonist three and a half entirely uneventful pages just to walk from his bedroom to the drawing room. Another: As a conclusion begins ever so slowly to build, one of the principals sends the hero a message marked urgent; he dashes off to meet her in the chapel but before we learn why, we must pause for a detailed examination of a painting of a Madonna and Child on the chapel wall. Well, you say to yourself, that's surely because this painting is going to figure prominently in the denouement to come, right? Nope, it doesn't. But this digression and dozens like it do explain why this book runs some 200 pages longer than King's others. The plot itself doesn't need the extra space. And her settings and characters do not seem to come more alive on the page because of it.

I'm giving this one four stars because King is such a terrific writer, and because two of the six principal characters--Bennett and Laura--are exceptionally interesting and well drawn, and the ending's a doozy. Also I think she really pours heart and soul into these stand-alone books and I hope she'll do more of them. But please not at such length.

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

Other reviewers have mentioned this book's slow pace, but what I found (nearly) unforgivable was the structure of the first two-thirds:

1. Persons A, B, and C talk about stuff
2. Person A goes off in a room and thinks about chapter 1
3. Person B goes off in a different room and thinks about chapter 1
4. Person C goes off in another room and thinks about chapter 1

Repeat many, many times.

Also I was not fond of the propensity for ending chapters at a dramatic point, only to have the next page immediately deflate the tension. End of chapter x: Out of the blue, a man points a gun at Stuyvesant (main character). Beginning of chapter x + 1: Man with a gun asks Stuyvesant who he is, puts the gun away.

I was taken by the characters, however, and so I finished out the book, and basically I'm left with, enh. The identity of the bomber, by the time it comes, is not particularly satisfying. You don't think, "Oh of course, I should've known" because there weren't clues all along. It ends up having to be one of a few people, and King picks the one with the most dramatic potential, but if she had substituted a different ending, there's nothing in the text to make that implausible.

The characters are well-done (especially Bennett Grey, the title character), and of course the writing is excellent (on a sentence level), but otherwise this novel is far inferior to King's other work. (I've read most of the Martinelli novels, all of the Mary Russell novels, and three of the non-series novels, just so you know where I'm coming from.)

For a similar feel (British country house suspense plus politics and intrigue) with a much tighter plot, try Jo Walton's _Farthing_ (and the sequel, _Ha'penny_).

I have read all of her books and will continue to do so. Her intrigue is deep and convoluted. Once I begin one of her books, I read it during every meal (that's why I've grown so fat recently).
The only aspect of her books that tires me a little is the enormous amount of detail in her descriptions of furnishings in rooms, and of buildings.
Nevertheless, she is my favorite mystery writer.

I'm another Laurie R. King fan disappointed by the eagerly awaited standalone novel, Touchstone. Other reviews have already noted the overly long descriptions and the slow character development. Even more disappointing for me were the stereotyped characters and the often-amateurish writing. Is there a novelist's rulebook that requires evil men to have peculiar sexual appetites? The almost laughably nasty Carstairs should have been wearing a monocle. I usually love Ms. King's prose, but I almost couldn't finish this book. Plot twists came by express delivery early in the book. The titular Touchstone, with his war-wounded ability to discern the truth, never really figured into the plot. I know Ms. King has said in her blog that she's working on another Mary Russell book (yea!), but she's also considering making Touchstone a three-book series. I hope she gives us more Russell and Kate Martinelli before picking up these new but already outdated characters from Touchstone.

If you like Laurie King's other books -- particularly her detective fiction -- you may also like this standalone novel, which takes place in the 1920s, when the wounds of World War I were still fresh in everyone's minds.

In some ways, this novel is hard to pigeonhole. It has elements of mystery (though without the expected dead body in the library by the end of chapter 2); bits of romance (I'm a sucker for a love story); and certainly "thriller" action -- but not in a James Bond derring-do sort of way. It is, however, a good read, and it merits my YawnFactor praise (that is, I stayed up late to read "just one more chapter... well, maybe two..." several nights in a row).

It's hard to talk about the plot without spoilers. The basic facts are in Amazon's summary: a U.S. agent heads to England to find someone who appears to have been engaging in terrorist activity, and in that pursuit he is hooked up with a Great War survivor whose war injury has given him... unusual abilities. The action takes you through post-war London, upper-class English values, and the civil unrest before industry and unions found their peace (assuming they ever really did).

It's a serious book, without a lot of laughter, but the people are all believable and King doesn't cheat... her characters grow and change, but usually at a price. I very much enjoyed reading it.

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

Well, I liked it. Not Laurie King's normal fare, I'm a Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes duo fan but I found it good anyway. I was hooked by the nasty character first. The story is told by the American "FBI" type agent on the loose in England. The historic, social and political context of the plot were well done. All I can seriously grumble about was the cost to buy on my Kindle. Hmmh. Enjoy!

Although "Touchstone" got off to a rather confusing start (I wasn't sure who I was reading about there for a while...), after the character of Bennett Grey was introduced, this book kicked into vintage Laurie R. King style and I was hooked.

This is a gripping story with characters more fully fleshed out than in your usual mystery/thriller. At times, Grey's emotional pain was so strong that it practically leapt off the page. "Touchstone" has many of the usual elements of a thriller (twists, turns, doubting one character after another, an English country house...) and yet the reader gets far more than that. Beyond the mystery, there is also the sense that the reader truly is in the minds of Bennett Grey and Harris Stuyvesant. The relationship that develops between these two disparate people is much of what kept me reading, and enjoying, "Touchstone".