Book 38: Evil For Evil

The latest Billy Boyle installment. This time, Billy is looking for some BFGs stolen from a base in Ireland. The MI5 think that it's the IRA and that the IRA is going to team up with the Nazis to distract the English. The main conflict in this one is loyalty-- is Billy going to complete the assignment given to him by the US government or will he look out for the interests of the IRA? If I weren't completely exhausted, I would really dwell on this. It was well played.

The most emotionally compelling part of the book was not even any of the action of this story. Instead, Billy recounts the letter that was pinned to his grandfather's coat when he came over to the US as a boy. Terrible to think of English soldiers guarding the docks as other food grown in Ireland during the potato blight was sent away, leaving people to starve. The blight was from God, the famine was from the Crown.

The hidden relationship between two of the linked characters was telegraphed rather early. Additionally, I thought some of the ending was too neat and tidy-- there were a couple of characters who died, out of nowhere, instead of having a more conventional, prison based comeuppance.