“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants”, Thomas Jefferson, 1787. Elusive Thistle, the second book in the trilogy, is a dystopian adaptation by Coll MacLaren of Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s ‘The Elusive Pimpernel’. This second adventure in the Violet Thistle trilogy, set during 2093, is a tale of deviousness and daring. Torquil Fergusson, the Violet Thistle, our dandy hero with the secret identity, is drawn into a duel of blades with the revengeful and twisted right-wing agent of the Retributions, Hein Hansen. Meanwhile, the Electroline relentlessly zaps the life from persecuted Liberal Americans. From the idyllic sanctuary of the Scottish Hebrides, Meggie, our hero’s beautiful American wife, covertly follows the Violet Thistle to the treacherous Apostolic States of America, only to be seized at the border and imprisoned. Her life is bartered in a deal which would see the Violet Thistle disgraced, if not killed. Can the Violet Thistle rescue her and possibly even liberate the town in which she is held? What clandestine technologies has he got up his sleeve? How will Torquil’s cunning outwit his coyote-eyed adversary? “Engaging and accomplished, Coll MacLaren vividly updates this well-known character.”