The Power-House
1916
In Edward Leithen, John Buchan created exactly the kind of hero his World War I-era readers needed: a level-headed British gentleman who thinks his way through crises rather than simply fighting them. When Leithen's friend Tommy Deloraine reveals that their mutual acquaintance Charles Pitt-Heron has vanished after exhibiting strange behavior around mysterious scientific experiments, Leithen's professional curiosity is piqued. His investigation draws him into the orbit of Andrew Lumley, a wealthy Englishman with elegant manners and apocalyptic visions. Lumley leads an international network called the Power-House, anarchists who believe Western civilization is rotten and must be destroyed. As Leithen digs deeper, he discovers a conspiracy that stretches from London to Moscow, one that threatens not just individual lives but the foundations of society itself. A cracking good yarn that also happens to capture the political anxieties of an era perpetually on the edge of upheaval. For readers who enjoy intelligent thrillers where the hero's wits matter more than his fists.
Editions
X-Ray
“I began to get really keen, for every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.””
— John Buchan
“To spend your days on such work when the world is chockful of amusing things. Life goes roaring by and you only hear the echo in your stuffy rooms.””
— John Buchan
“You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Satan.””
— John Buchan
“يمكن لأكثر الناس سلاماً على الأرض أن يُقاد للقتال.””
— John Buchan
“We were at Glenaicill”
— John Buchan
“In the same week he would harass an Under-Secretary about horses from the Army, write voluminously to the press about a gun he had invented for potting aeroplanes, give a fancy-dress ball which he forgot to attend, and get in the semi-final of the racquets championship.””
— John Buchan
