All That We Touch
by Ray Else
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Pub Date Jan 04 2016 | Archive Date Oct 12 2016
Else | AuthorBuzz
Description
What if your lover betrayed you, crowning you with sorrow? What if you were then kidnapped, threatened with death? Brokenhearted, you almost wish that the kidnappers would kill you. You wish your world would come to an end. Only, you slowly realize, your world is everyone else's. This is Fernanda's story.
Fernanda first met Randy when he and his friend Chance came to Mexico to celebrate graduating high school. It was love at first sight. After a marvelous time together and a single kiss, Randy smuggled Fernanda across the border, at her request, to start a new life. But after coming to America she lost contact with Randy. Ten years passed before he tracked her down again, and reclaimed her heart.
They now live in a cabin next to a quartz crystal mine in Arkansas. Fernanda has Randy's baby, a daughter, and all seems well, if not for certain rumors on the internet. Rumors that Fernanda is more than she appears to be. One of the rumors says that she is actually Fernanda the Ripper, member of a thousand year old Indian cult of murderers. Another rumor says the opposite, that she is actually Fernanda the Innocent, born to be sacrificed, that she is perhaps even the long-awaited Christian Messiah. In any event, the FBI are involved, are watching the cabin and Fernanda's every movement. When Randy takes Fernanda to Paris on their second honeymoon, the FBI follow.
Meanwhile FBI agent Ed Pushkin, on loan to INTERPOL, is pursuing another case. He is told to go to the Saint Anthony Chapel in Pittsburgh to investigate the theft of a holy relic, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns. The investigation leads to London, where another holy thorn has been stolen from an exquisite reliquary in the British Museum, and a guard killed. In London Ed meets Chief Investigator Phoebe Mullins, who has a preposterous theory that leads them to Paris, to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where the original Crown of Thorns is kept under lock and key.
After a series of events in Paris that bring the individuals involved in these two FBI cases together, Fernanda is taken by strange men on a train to Istanbul, followed by Ed and CI Mullins and Randy. In ancient Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, Fernanda must make a decision that could impact not only her baby but all mankind.
Fernanda first met Randy when he and his friend Chance came to Mexico to celebrate graduating high school. It was love at first sight. After a marvelous time together and a single kiss, Randy smuggled Fernanda across the border, at her request, to start a new life. But after coming to America she lost contact with Randy. Ten years passed before he tracked her down again, and reclaimed her heart.
They now live in a cabin next to a quartz crystal mine in Arkansas. Fernanda has Randy's baby, a daughter, and all seems well, if not for certain rumors on the internet. Rumors that Fernanda is more than she appears to be. One of the rumors says that she is actually Fernanda the Ripper, member of a thousand year old Indian cult of murderers. Another rumor says the opposite, that she is actually Fernanda the Innocent, born to be sacrificed, that she is perhaps even the long-awaited Christian Messiah. In any event, the FBI are involved, are watching the cabin and Fernanda's every movement. When Randy takes Fernanda to Paris on their second honeymoon, the FBI follow.
Meanwhile FBI agent Ed Pushkin, on loan to INTERPOL, is pursuing another case. He is told to go to the Saint Anthony Chapel in Pittsburgh to investigate the theft of a holy relic, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns. The investigation leads to London, where another holy thorn has been stolen from an exquisite reliquary in the British Museum, and a guard killed. In London Ed meets Chief Investigator Phoebe Mullins, who has a preposterous theory that leads them to Paris, to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, where the original Crown of Thorns is kept under lock and key.
After a series of events in Paris that bring the individuals involved in these two FBI cases together, Fernanda is taken by strange men on a train to Istanbul, followed by Ed and CI Mullins and Randy. In ancient Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, Fernanda must make a decision that could impact not only her baby but all mankind.
Advance Praise
Praise from Eloise Millar, Galley Beggar Press
A solid thriller/mystery that actually has (i) some real teeth, in terms of the issues being discussed (religion/spirituality and its place in the modern world), and is also (ii) rather delightfully irreverent, in the way that it mixes the magical-real or more otherworldly with writing and characters drawn from the hard-boiled/Noir tradition.
Review by Amazon Customer on Mar 15, 2016 for Amazon (5 star)
Reading this story reminds me of the excitement I felt while reading The DaVinci Code, but with a more human (i.e. imperfect) element developed in the characters' beliefs and values, and without the academic explanations of symbolism. A good mix of steady plot pace, historical context, and depth beyond the words. For anyone who has grown up with religion, and has gone full circle with it... i.e. reached a point of shunning it, then gradually finding understanding through life experiences that hope, the essential element of any religion, must be pursued in terms that you can personally understand, this book is an excellent read.
Review by Danny D. on Feb 19, 2016 for Amazon (5 star)
I'm frustrated with the way that Amazon tries to channel reviews into check the box kind of things. Because I would rather just "wax eloquent" about Else. He does what he does awfully well. It seems coarse to describe the prose as both elegant, and if one will "chewy". But there is a lot to get one's head around here. Color me envious. Very very high quality fiction…
From Texjim’s review on Goodreads.com
This is a very engaging story told almost entirely in conversation. Thus, there is lots of open page space and the 200 plus pages fly by quickly. The quirky characters are gradually developed via their continued musings and sometimes inane repartee. Overall the structure and inherent seductive strangeness is somewhere between Robbin's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49"…
GENERAL PRAISE FOR ELSE’S FICTION:
“Else obviously has a vivid imagination and some of the storytelling passages are wonderful.” Allen H. Peacock, Simon & Schuster
“his prose is evocative and he brings fresh sharp insight to family scenes” Deborah Futter, Bantam Doubleday Dell
“On Sunday February 23rd I suffered from insomnia and turned on the World Service in the middle of the night. I was absolutely captivated by what I heard. It was your short story ‘Surviving on Mexican Shade’.”
Fan letter from John R. Murray, John Murray Publishers
A solid thriller/mystery that actually has (i) some real teeth, in terms of the issues being discussed (religion/spirituality and its place in the modern world), and is also (ii) rather delightfully irreverent, in the way that it mixes the magical-real or more otherworldly with writing and characters drawn from the hard-boiled/Noir tradition.
Review by Amazon Customer on Mar 15, 2016 for Amazon (5 star)
Reading this story reminds me of the excitement I felt while reading The DaVinci Code, but with a more human (i.e. imperfect) element developed in the characters' beliefs and values, and without the academic explanations of symbolism. A good mix of steady plot pace, historical context, and depth beyond the words. For anyone who has grown up with religion, and has gone full circle with it... i.e. reached a point of shunning it, then gradually finding understanding through life experiences that hope, the essential element of any religion, must be pursued in terms that you can personally understand, this book is an excellent read.
Review by Danny D. on Feb 19, 2016 for Amazon (5 star)
I'm frustrated with the way that Amazon tries to channel reviews into check the box kind of things. Because I would rather just "wax eloquent" about Else. He does what he does awfully well. It seems coarse to describe the prose as both elegant, and if one will "chewy". But there is a lot to get one's head around here. Color me envious. Very very high quality fiction…
From Texjim’s review on Goodreads.com
This is a very engaging story told almost entirely in conversation. Thus, there is lots of open page space and the 200 plus pages fly by quickly. The quirky characters are gradually developed via their continued musings and sometimes inane repartee. Overall the structure and inherent seductive strangeness is somewhere between Robbin's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49"…
GENERAL PRAISE FOR ELSE’S FICTION:
“Else obviously has a vivid imagination and some of the storytelling passages are wonderful.” Allen H. Peacock, Simon & Schuster
“his prose is evocative and he brings fresh sharp insight to family scenes” Deborah Futter, Bantam Doubleday Dell
“On Sunday February 23rd I suffered from insomnia and turned on the World Service in the middle of the night. I was absolutely captivated by what I heard. It was your short story ‘Surviving on Mexican Shade’.”
Fan letter from John R. Murray, John Murray Publishers
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9780996507127 |
| PRICE | |
Links
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