''The Medusa Touch'' is a 1973 novel by

Peter Van Greenaway Peter Van Greenaway (1929 – 1988) was a British novelist, the author of numerous thrillers with elements of horror and satire. He was born and educated in London, worked briefly in commercial art and acted in theatre. His first novel, ''The ...

, which was adapted fairly faithfully into a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

in 1978. The novel tells the story of a radically disenchanted

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

with highly destructive

telekinetic Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...

powers. ''The Medusa Touch'' is one of several Van Greenaway books featuring the character Inspector Cherry of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

. The 1978 movie version starred actor

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

as the lead character John Morlar. The movie and the novel feature characters who are convinced that Morlar has unexplained powers which cause death, but maybe he predicts the awful things which are about to happen, much like the characters in "The Final Destination" movies. They saw everyone getting killed before it happened but tried to prevent it. In "The Medusa Touch" Morlar lets it happen and convinces himself that he made it happen. Also, maybe it should've been called "The Medusa Stare" because Morlar stares at people, symbolically turning them to stone, but he does not touch them.

References

1973 British novels British thriller novels British novels adapted into films Novels about writers Victor Gollancz Ltd books {{1970s-thriller-novel-stub