One of Lymington’s better books but nothing to run around looking for. This one concerns an alien invasion that may cost everyone on Earth their sanity. As with most of Lymington’s books it all starts in a small English village.
Strange things are starting to happen in Sonning Keynes. Harry Royce has disappeared. His housekeeper Clara Mason reports for work as usual but feels something evil is in the wind. Harry’s secretary of four months, Mary Standish, wonders what the panic is all about. Clara freaks when the remnants of an uncompleted meal are found and it looks like Harry went without a trace.
Now a girl named Liz Courcey shows up. She says she’s Harry’s fiancee. Harry never told anyone about her. Local workman Gaskin and the Vicar don’t have a clue about where he could have gone and the house has turned cold. It’s always been a strange place. A year ago Harry called in the Vicar to exorcise the house because he believed it to be haunted. Harry’s friend John Gray says he was working on traveling space by teleportation.
Mary finds a short note from Harry saying a Dr.Querns is going to come over while Harry’s away. In the observatory Harry’s telescope is focused on a specific star. Querns think he tried to teleport there. Now things get even stranger as no one seems able to leave the house.
Hostile aliens may be trying to use Harry’s mind to invade Earth. No one knows what they really are. They could be from the star or maybe lost souls out of Limbo. It looks like things have gone way beyond any hope of stopping them. They want to get inside the minds of everyone in the village and take over.
The book moves quickly but it isn’t a must read by any means. It doesn’t have that chill factor you’d expect from something like this. It does have a decent ending.
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