After being a candidate under Amazon’s KindleScout program, the novel “High Ground” will soon be available on Amazon.com as both an eBook and a paperback. The story, set in coastal Maine, blends emerging high technology development with a small town struggle to rid itself of its long-held resentment toward the last surviving member of the previous robber-baron who savaged the town nearly one hundred years earlier.
The story: Esther Brandt, an elderly, eccentric and reclusive woman, believes she is under nightly attack by searing radiation of an unknown source. Esther believes she is an electromagnetic hypersensitive, and has avoided all forms of technology which create it, including telephones, television and electric lights. She must now turn for help to the townspeople who have been ground to dust by her long-dead father and his long-closed mill. They are not rushing to her aid.
After her 93 year old mother died a decade before, most people in town were under the impression that no one still lived in the dark and derelict mansion on Mill Hill. A newcomer discovers the woman, alone, frightened and frequently terrorized by a local thug. When the visitor speaks up for Esther, a media frenzy descends, bristling with microwave, satellite and bonded-cellular television gear, surrounding her on all sides by the technology that she fears most.
Beyond the crest of the hill, a 21st century robber-baron has arrived, operating from a World War II airfield behind the once-grand estate. Her new neighbor? A laser weapons firm, racing to secure proof-of-concept for a large defense contract.
Richard Authier Lee 