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High Ground
A month ago, Margaret Haart’s husband left her for a college girl. A week ago, her father died in a car crash near his coastal Maine home. She has come to retrieve his dog and belongings, before deciding what to do with his house.
In the morning light, Margaret is drawn to a looming structure nearby: a decrepit mansion, where she finds Esther Brandt living alone, terrorized by local children who throw rocks at her windows, and thinking she hears dead family members walking the halls at night. Sixty years a lonely and frightened woman, Esther is the last surviving member of her once-great family. Esther doesn’t use electric lights, telephone or television because she believes herself to be an EMF hypersensitive, one who suffers pain in the presence of electromagnetic fields. And, she tells Margaret, she is under nightly attack by searing radiation of an unknown source.
Horrified by the old woman's mental state and plight, Margaret turns for help to the townspeople, only to find they have been ground to dust by Esther’s long-dead father and his long-closed mill. The only person stepping up to help is Ruth, a brassy school teacher and the only local who drove to Massachusetts for Margaret's father’s wake. Esther may be crazed, Ruth tells Margaret, but she is not crazy.
Atop the hill behind the Brandt estate, a 21st century robber-baron has begun night flights from a reactivated World War II airfield. High Ground Technologies is perfecting an airborne laser weapon, launching test flights that pass almost directly over the Brandt mansion on their way out into the skies above the North Atlantic.
In the morning light, Margaret is drawn to a looming structure nearby: a decrepit mansion, where she finds Esther Brandt living alone, terrorized by local children who throw rocks at her windows, and thinking she hears dead family members walking the halls at night. Sixty years a lonely and frightened woman, Esther is the last surviving member of her once-great family. Esther doesn’t use electric lights, telephone or television because she believes herself to be an EMF hypersensitive, one who suffers pain in the presence of electromagnetic fields. And, she tells Margaret, she is under nightly attack by searing radiation of an unknown source.
Horrified by the old woman's mental state and plight, Margaret turns for help to the townspeople, only to find they have been ground to dust by Esther’s long-dead father and his long-closed mill. The only person stepping up to help is Ruth, a brassy school teacher and the only local who drove to Massachusetts for Margaret's father’s wake. Esther may be crazed, Ruth tells Margaret, but she is not crazy.
Atop the hill behind the Brandt estate, a 21st century robber-baron has begun night flights from a reactivated World War II airfield. High Ground Technologies is perfecting an airborne laser weapon, launching test flights that pass almost directly over the Brandt mansion on their way out into the skies above the North Atlantic.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2017
About the author
Richard Authier Lee
2 books2 followersThe audiobook version of Lee's 2017 first novel, "High Ground," is now available on Audible and iTunes. He is working on the novel's sequel.
The second book involves characters from the first set in coastal Maine, but follows a storyline unraveling a new mystery, brought to them by the media coverage and celebrity of their clash with High Ground Technologies in Book One.
Rick Lee grew up in the United States, in Hanover, New Hampshire, in a family where reading was a relaxation and storytelling a revered skill. While in school, he worked part time in a movie theater, managed by his grandfather, where he developed a love for film. A love of reading and movies is clear in his writing, which always begins with a keen sense of place and draws from a belief in the dignity of everyday people.
Rick has a background in broadcasting and journalism and a long career in media relations and nonprofit management.
He lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts with his wife Norma and their beagle, Scout, who is blithely unaware that he is a dog, and still slightly miffed that the beagle in the first book was named Bailey.
The second book involves characters from the first set in coastal Maine, but follows a storyline unraveling a new mystery, brought to them by the media coverage and celebrity of their clash with High Ground Technologies in Book One.
Rick Lee grew up in the United States, in Hanover, New Hampshire, in a family where reading was a relaxation and storytelling a revered skill. While in school, he worked part time in a movie theater, managed by his grandfather, where he developed a love for film. A love of reading and movies is clear in his writing, which always begins with a keen sense of place and draws from a belief in the dignity of everyday people.
Rick has a background in broadcasting and journalism and a long career in media relations and nonprofit management.
He lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts with his wife Norma and their beagle, Scout, who is blithely unaware that he is a dog, and still slightly miffed that the beagle in the first book was named Bailey.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 13, 2018
Not my favorite book...
Unlike so many who loved this story, I simply couldn't get involved in it. To many characters made more confusing by referencing them one time by a last name and the next time by the first. While it got more interesting the last part of the book, and does point out how the powers that be push on often at the expense of and total disregard of anyone else in their single-minded rush to control, it was just not enough for me to recommend it.
Unlike so many who loved this story, I simply couldn't get involved in it. To many characters made more confusing by referencing them one time by a last name and the next time by the first. While it got more interesting the last part of the book, and does point out how the powers that be push on often at the expense of and total disregard of anyone else in their single-minded rush to control, it was just not enough for me to recommend it.
January 16, 2018
Good book!
I sat on the edge of my sear! I like books where people stand for each other-black, white or brown. Our world really needs that right now with our current political leaders.
I sat on the edge of my sear! I like books where people stand for each other-black, white or brown. Our world really needs that right now with our current political leaders.
October 18, 2018
Good reading
Nice, easy book. Reasonably well written and editted with interesting characters and an unusual plot. The protagonists win the battle but the war moves on to another battlefield...like real life.
Nice, easy book. Reasonably well written and editted with interesting characters and an unusual plot. The protagonists win the battle but the war moves on to another battlefield...like real life.
February 24, 2018
Delightful book
I enjoyed this book very much. It would make a great movie. Seems still appropriate for today' world of electromagnetism.
I enjoyed this book very much. It would make a great movie. Seems still appropriate for today' world of electromagnetism.
August 31, 2022
I enjoyed the storytelling and the story overall. It was sad and frustrating at times, but a good book knows how to bring emotions to the surface.
February 15, 2019
To be fair, I wrote it, so I should think it's pretty good, no?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews