Touchstone: Station at the End of Time

by Andy Conway

A haunted train station in 1959, a freight train with a mysterious cargo and a young woman determined to throw herself in front of it...

Continuing the adventures of Rachel and Danny, a pair of mismatched History students who stumble upon an old gravestone that catapults them back in time.

Rachel miraculously finds herself back at home in the present with her father but suffering a recurring nightmare of being trapped on Kings Heath station in 1959, trying to prevent her maternal grandmother, Deirdre Foster, committing suicide.

As more and more characters from her time-travelling past intrude on both her too perfect waking world and her nightmares, she begins to wonder which world is real... leading to a terrifying battle to hold onto her own sanity.

This edition also contains bonus short story 'The Reluctant Time-Traveller', a creepy, spine-tingling investigation into the truth behind the Touchstone stories.

185 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 2013

About the author

Andy Conway is the novelist, screenwriter and time traveller behind the Touchstone series. He runs a publishing empire from a loft in Birmingham. A keen advocate for authors' rights, he is the founder of the West Midlands Screenwriters Forum, New Street Authors and Punk Publishers.

Read more and join his Touchstone mailing list at www.andyconway.net

Reviews

[Daelene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this installment. Through the authors words you can feel the anxiety that Rachel must feel. If you found you lived in a perfect make believe world would you return to your life in your ordinary world.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I will say about this series so far, is that it doesn’t seem repetitive. Well, this book is slightly but I will explain why in a second. But the author has come up with fresh ideas for each book that I have read so far. I’m only on book 4, out of a 12 book series, with 4 spin off books, the remainder of which I have been banned from buying in paperback. So kindle editions it will be. (I only have up to book 6 in paperback and cannot warrant spending about £70 on the remaining books.)

This entry in the Touchstone series finds Rachel seemingly happy in the present day, but suffering recurring terrifying nightmares of trying to stop a woman killing herself in 1959 - her grandmother. When she is not waking herself up screaming, she is back doing field studies in a graveyard, with Danny, Jessica etc who are all very nice to her …

Sound familiar? Station At The End of Time feels like it’s rehashing the first book, but with a neat little twist. There’s a constant feeling of deja vu during the book and the sensation that something isn’t quite right. Rachel’s panicked feeling at everything, including Danny’s personality change, lead to the reader whipping through the pages at a rate of knots.

Perhaps I kind of spoiled this for myself, by reading his short story, The Reluctant Time Traveller, but I did guess what was going on. If you haven’t read The Reluctant Time Traveller yet, then I would recommend reading it after this book.

The whole book has a very Groundhog Day vibe to it, with lots of characters appearing from the previous books in almost different guises. Rachel’s fear and isolation, means you’re rooting for her to figure out exactly what is going on. What is real and what is not, and why can’t she reach the touchstone?

I ripped through this in an afternoon, as it’s only 155 pages and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[[ J o ]]

Read the first book of the Touchstone series, The Sins of the Fathers. 1 Star, there fore will not be continuing with the series.