The Power-House

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.