The story in one page
In 1973, the United States is dissolving into a mess of graft, police brutality, and bizarre cabinet resignations. FBI Director Andrew J. Burris is convinced the country is headed to Hell in a handbasket, but he lacks a culprit. Agent Kenneth J. Malone, a man who knows his way around a teleportation jump and a psychic ward, suspects the chaos is too synchronized to be natural. While the FBI officially chases a theory about drugged water supplies, Malone follows a trail of mental energy bursts that leads him to the Psychical Research Society. He must determine if the social collapse is a sequence of accidents or a deliberate psionic sabotage campaign intended to wreck the nation.
Who's who
- Kenneth J. Malone
An FBI agent with teleportation abilities investigating national instability.
- Andrew J. Burris
The baffled Director of the FBI who suspects a chemical conspiracy.
- Luba
A red-haired employee of the Psychical Research Society and Malone's interest.
- Thomas Boyd
Malone's colleague who prefers simple drug theories over psychic explanations.
- Sir Lewis Carter
The head of the Psychical Research Society.
- Her Majesty
A powerful, psychotic telepath who provides Malone with mental leads.
What it's really about
- Mental Sabotage
- Hidden psychic interference causing large-scale social and political decay.
- Bureaucratic Skepticism
- Institutional preference for material explanations over supernatural or psionic realities.
Why it's memorable
- Malone staring at his black sock with a gold clock while contemplating insanity.
- The blue plate-glass crackerbox building housing the Psychical Research Society.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
Malone realizes that Luba's apparent superiority makes a romantic relationship impossible, so he departs for Yucca Flats to find Barbara Wilson, accepting that history is a cycle of recurring disasters.
For your book club
- The tension between Malone’s intuitive psionic theories and Burris's grounded drug-contamination theory.
- Whether Malone's knightly persona is a coping mechanism or a genuine mental evolution.