{"id":153,"date":"2020-03-25T20:50:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T00:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samiamreadingandreviewing.wordpress.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:05:09","slug":"touchstone-laurie-r-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Touchstone – Laurie R. King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brought to us by the esteemed author of the Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell series, Laurie R King introduces Touchstone<\/em>, a borderline thriller-mystery. I will admit up front that I\u2019ve never read any Laurie R. King before, so this is my first exposure to her writing style. I\u2019ve been debating about trying the Mary Russell novels, but I\u2019m just not sure how I feel about a spin-off of a truly great classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Touchstone<\/em> is post-WWI, and veteran and FBI agent Harris Stuysevant is in England tracking down a bomber. He\u2019s gone rogue, in the UK unofficially, and he finds help from another man, Carstairs, who also works under the radar. Carstairs introduces Stuysevant to recluse Bennett Grey, another veteran who came home from the war with extrasensory abilities. It\u2019s not<\/em> mind-reading, but gives off that impression. Grey is to connect Stuysevant with his sister, who works closely with the bombing suspect. To introduce the two, Grey and Stuyvesant spend a weekend at Hurleigh house, hobnobbing with the duke, his children, and a possible terrorist. As Stuyvesant works to get closer and closer to finding proof of his suspect\u2019s misdeeds, he finds himself attracted to both Grey\u2019s sister and the suspect\u2019s girlfriend, Lady Laura Hurleigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This synopsis is probably the best one I can give without revealing the plots-within-plots in this novel. The writing is well-crafted, and it hints about events to come by exposing readers to the thoughts of each main player. The tone of this novel is very serious, and does not introduce readers to a lighter side of the characters. There is a second book, and I\u2019d be interested in reading it to see if Stuysevant\/Grey have a lighter side to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One reason for the serious tone is the subject matter – this novel takes place during the General Strike of 1926 in England, where miners went on strike because mine owners were demanding longer hours for less pay. Other industries went on strike at the same time, which left the government in a panic and transportation shut down. If you\u2019d like to read more about the strike, a brief article can be found at the BBC: https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-13828537<\/a>. Communism was also a threat at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the miner\u2019s strike and communism feature heavily in this novel. Grey\u2019s sister, Sarah, Laura Hurleigh, and the bombing suspect are Red\u2019s through-and-through. They continually advocate for the abolishment of government, freedom for the workers, and are fearless to confront the \u201cproblem\u201d of capitalism. Especially considering today\u2019s political climate, it\u2019s a very<\/em> interesting read. Part of me can\u2019t believe that people think similarly to these characters, and the rest of me fears for these characters\u2019 well-being while conversing at the dinner table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it is a very serious tone. If you\u2019re interested in what communists were\/are like, give this book a read. Granted, they are fictional characters, but there\u2019s no doubt that King has done her research and is reflecting the appropriate attitudes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am happy that there is a second book as this one was a little slow for me. I\u2019m hoping that this was the book in which we got to know all of the characters, and the next book might be paced a little more quickly. The writing was great, just a little long-winded at times. It was 458 pages, and I think it could have been condensed to 358 without missing anything major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This novel also was less of a mystery and more of a thriller; I will agree with other reviews on that. I was expecting more murder, mayhem, and clues, and I didn\u2019t get any of those. The ending was still a surprise for me, however. It was also less romantic than its synopsis claimed, which was disappointing for me as I was looking forward to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, I want to read the second book to further investigate this duo of Grey and Stuyvesant. I haven\u2019t mentioned a lot about Grey and his mysterious talents in this review, and that\u2019s because he didn\u2019t feature as prominently in the mystery plot as I would have thought. I would like to see him brought into the story as an asset rather than a facilitator, and maybe he will in the next book. I\u2019d recommend this for someone who wants a more serious tone and who can stomach quite a bit of communist talk. I have to admit, it wore me out a little reading that. The ending was satisfactory, though, and the story well-written, if a little lengthy at times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brought to us by the esteemed author of the Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell series, Laurie R King introduces Touchstone, a borderline thriller-mystery. I will admit up front that I\u2019ve never read any Laurie R. King before, so this is my first exposure to her writing style. I\u2019ve been debating about trying the Mary RussellContinue reading “Touchstone – Laurie R. King”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,58,82,120,184,226,259,287,377,425,429,456],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-bookstagram","tag-communism","tag-england","tag-instagram","tag-laurie-r-king","tag-mary-russell","tag-mystery","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-thriller","tag-touchstone","tag-wwi","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/img_20200305_170542977-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}