When Danny and Laura first meet, he babbles that he fell in love with her through her writing. It's also mentioned that she's writing a children's book about Sir Tommy Toad's adventures. Laura keeps Sir Tommy's tiny umbrella, scarf and rubber boots all through her own life, and when her son Chris is about six, she pulls them out and starts the game all over again. Danny first becomes aware of Laura when he reads a short story of hers based on her and her father's adventures with Tommy Toad, and initially courts her with anonymous gifts of toad figurines. One of the scenes of Laura's time with her father is about the start of a childhood game, about an invisible house guest named Sir Tommy Toad, 'a fine upstanding toad, a gentleman toad here on the Queen's business'. It turns out that Churchill talked everyone into continuing the fight after Germany was defeated and turned on Russia meaning the USSR never formed, Germany never split, and The Cold War never started! While there, Churchill asks an idle question about the future of Russia, and Stefan tells him. As part of his plan to destroy the time-travel institute, Stefan 'jaunts' to England 1944 to visit with Winston Churchill to talk him into bombing the institute. Been There, Shaped History: done by Stefan by sheer accident.Later he protects her from various other serious childhood traumas, including injury, death, and multiple rapes.His first trip prevents the drunken doctor from delivering her. She is paralyzed due to a botched delivery at birth. Stefan originally begins meddling in Laura's life when he sees her for the first time in a wheelchair.Unless they are stopped, the Nazis will use time travel to win the war.Bad Future: One of the primary drivers of the story.Bad Ass In A Nice Suit : The time traveling Nazis wear Yves St Laurent pinstripes and RayBan Cool Shades, the 'power suit' of the late The '80s.Arc Words: 'Destiny struggles to reassert the pattern of what is meant to be'.Alternating between plots in 1944 and the present day (which takes place progressively between 19), Stefan and Laura fight to keep her life stable and protect her from constant tragedy on one end, while preventing the Nazis from using time travel to win the war on the other end.

The stranger turns out to be a time-traveling Nazi named Stefan Krieger, who has fallen in love with Laura. Since just knowing this identity constitutes a bit of a spoiler, proceed at your own risk.

The identity is gradually revealed over the course of the book, but remains uncertain for nearly half the story. The story chronicles the life of Laura Shane, a novelist who is protected by a mysterious guardian. Lightning is a 1988 novel by Dean Koontz.

Dean koontz lightning review