Standing Stone
Patrick Egan
Paperback
(Outskirts Press, March 9, 2012)
It was 1793. The city of Paris had moved toward a Reign of Terror. Executions of the Royalists were every day events. Confusion and fear was widespread among those of the higher classes. A small group of French emerges came to America and settled in this new nation of liberty. In Philadelphia, one such group found themselves facing yet a new killer, cholera. Many in this band headed for a new town built for them in the wilderness of northern Pennsylvania. It was called Azylum. Here they began to carve out a new existence for themselves. Alain, a boy of twelve helped his mother operate an inn. His father, for reasons yet unknown, had stayed behind in France. While Alain waits in vain for his father's arrival, a mysterious stranger from France appears at Azylum. Alain falls under his spell and soon sets off on what Alain thinks is to be a great adventure. In reality he has been unwittingly drawn into a sinister plot that may alter the future of France. Alain's story is one of emotional growth, a sense of connection with those people that were not high born, first love and learning the true fate of his father.