Imagine if, through the practiced art of meditative touch, you discovered a molten stream of psychic energy just below the surface of your hands. A mystical gateway to everyone around you, that revealed their deepest beliefs, their most intimate secrets. A window into the future that reduced all time to the eternal present moment. A source of immense power to heal or to harm. Daniel Michaels develops mystical abilities that are somehow connected to his hands. Drawn into a world where terrorism and love become inextricably linked, he is periodically haunted by a recurring dream of imminent danger. Does it speak of the past, the future, or the frightening figments of a vivid imagination? In this riveting drama, author Costa John weaves the beauty of Africa, the tension of Middle East politics, the meaning of dreams, and the inspiring notion that a spiritual connection binds us all, into a romantic, political thriller that keeps readers guessing until the last page.

What People Are Saying

THE TOUCH OF A LIGHTER HAND

Costa John 2005

Costa John's intricately woven tale touches on the nuances of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a deeply human level. So often these clashes are reduced to bloody television coverage and statistics. In this story, the lives and intense passions of the key characters are inextricably connected. Within the grey areas of right and wrong, the righteous and the rebellious, is a world that Costa John describes with acute sensitivity and insight.

His style of writing creates well drawn, rounded characters. Women play a powerful role in his novel. Too often in the genre of thriller, their role is victim—a mounting series of dead and mutilated bodies. If not dead, they are deadly. Whether tough and career-minded, or siren and seducer, Johns' female characters are also strong, flawed, irrational, passionate, fierce, and caring.

His principal character, Daniel Michaels, is an extraordinary man. His hands are imbued with energy that he describes as strangely able to project and receive life. His mystical power is latent but heightened by his increasing mastery of Aikido and the philosophy behind this martial art. But it extends beyond physical energy. He has paranormal abilities. His recurring dream grows on the reader and tugs at the edge of the subconscious. With mounting unease, as we track the time frame of the book, it leads us inexorably to a revelation, and a sense of déjà vu.

His soulmate, Liann Zellan, also has the power to heal. Evident from the first moment we meet them, they should and must be together. John keeps them tantalisingly apart, politically and emotionally. They are both attracted and troubled by each other's standpoints. His Arabic blood, African heritage, and American upbringing become a source of conflict as Liann struggles with a love she believes is at odds with her deep commitment to the Israeli cause.

The plot takes the reader from Chicago to San Francisco, from the bush of Southern Africa to the Middle East. Here John masterfully personifies Middle Eastern conflict, where desires and goals seem tantalisingly congruent, but are more often at violent odds.

The villains of Costa John's thriller run the dark side from warring factions, feeding expediently off the conflict, to parasites who benefit from the richness of their hosts—whatever side they may be on.

For any South African reader, Michaels' involvement in the Angolan war as a member of the South African Army in the 70s will resonate strongly. For American readers, this chapter in Africa's history may evoke hauntingly similar memories of foreign conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. But he also draws a vivid picture of African wildlife that reinforces the romance, the wonder, the sights, and the sounds of Africa.