No Hand Can Destroy

This is the story of the rehabilitation of an embittered young man through compassion and understanding. The story background involves murder, intrigue, and many of the elements of a modern mystery, but it is primarily a story of redemption and the power of love. The story, set in the West Highlands of Scotland, is devoted to the relationship that develops between two men: Lee Edward Harris (alias John Hartford) and Captain Richard Hamilton of Her Majesty's Royal Navy. Harris is a brilliant American prodigy who's life has been exclusively manipulated by those seeking to capitalize on his unique talents. His extraordinary ability to solve complex mathematical problems has made him a victim of modern power politics. His flight from broken promises and his search for his own identity takes him from America, to Soviet Russia and finally to Great Britain (Scotland) where he meets Hamilton. When Hartford first arrives at Blackthorn, Hamilton's farmstead located in a wild, remote and starkly beautiful part of the west Highlands, he is physically and emotionally stretched to the breaking point. He totters on the brink of mental collapse, is plagued by violent nightmares and periods of intense depression and melancholy. At times, he is suicidal. Hamilton, with the assistance of a caring few, succeeds in helping Hartford to evolve as a person. He is transformed into a caring human being who rises above his haunting past and desolate future to build something special-something that NO HAND CAN DESTROY. Hartford's evolution and his moment of visionary contentment is almost too late-he sees clearly just as a bullet from the ever-pursuing Soviet assassin kills him. The Russian bullet climaxes an arduous struggle for a young man who never held his destiny in his own hands. But the legacy that the young scientist leaves behind him is awesome indeed, so that in the end, there is only triumph.