To Kingdom Come: A Novel Paperback – February 7, 2006

Great read at bedtime or at the pool, anytime. Lovely relationships and very well done. Super likable. Great vocabulary. Wonderful story. Super well done timelines. And you always learn something about the late 1800's. Anyone can like this book.

Like the first of the series, this book was a pleasant and rather swift read, well within the limits of its genre. I never felt the need to ponder some provocative sentence, or consider some new, startling idea. But such courses of behavior are not the accompaniments of such works. A pleasant passing of time is all that is expected.But then there are the seeming inconsistencies of character, the breaches of grammar and usage which would have seemed inappropriate for the time, and the carelessness of research that would tell us more about stick fighting than it would about, arguably, the youth of the most significant poet of Twentieth Century English. But still, this is not Nabokov, or Bellow, or Pynchon, or Barthes, or.... This is just a little, unprepossessing bit of fluff to fill a few odd hours.And so these are small complaints considering the limited demands of the genre. What's more important finally is, I think, the author's curious coziness with cliche leading to ethnic insult. Here, I am reminded of Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, where Allen sullied his little offering with an extended depiction of Italians as a notch lower than dancing monkeys. The treatment was nauseating, but I have encountered few repudiations of it owing, I'm afraid, to the ignorant notion that some groups are not afforded the decency thought to be the right of most others in this country. Some particular groups are still expected to bear the brunt of vile depictions and ignorant assertions. For those of you who wince at such treatment, you may consider twice or thrice your reading of Thomas' little novel. If you think that accuracy demands that the Irish be depicted as reckless, violent, loquacious, inebriated, feckless louts, then you will find this little tale an unqualified success. Would John O'Leary fit this picture? Would Pearse, Griffith, DeValera, the Gore-Booths....Parnell, and what of Synge, Joyce, O'Nolan, Kavanagh, O'Casey, Heaney or the extraordinary host of others in all fields of endeavor.If such dismissals of your fellowman irk you, or disturb you to any extent, you may want to wait until the author matures somewhat. Perhaps you may want to wait for him to come to learn how much injustice has depended on such careless and scurrilous depictions, and how much pain has been their result. You may even want to send a small prayer that this maturation occurs sooner than later. Perhaps you could even whisper it in Gaelic.Perhaps I am being a bit tetchy, but I was once told of the result of an interview (fortunately not mine) at a large Manhattan firm. According to some of those present, the meeting had gone well, and the candidate was regarded as likable and knowledgeable. But when the determination on his candidacy was concluded, he was determined to be "too Irish." No explanation was given, no particulars were given. Just "too Irish." And with this tossed-off phrase a life was no doubt affected adversely. I have often wondered what became of him, and the memory of the event has led me to consider whether the careless jokes, and foolish allowances of cliches and generalizations contributed to the ease of discounting another human being. Must we always, for fear of seeming thin-skinned, hold our tongues and yet again fail to counter the careless quip, or acquiesce by our silence to another lurid depiction dependent on the old standbys of race hatred, gender bias and ethnic insult? Why do we stand for it? Why should we stand for it? Why can we not say that these time-worn affronts, for us and for all those who have been powerless to put an end to similar slights and perjuries, that these glib disparagements have all had their day, and that in this new day we will not depend on such slurs, or despoil even our most frivolous literature with such indignities?EWG

I'm a huge fan of Victorian / Edwardian detective fiction (Frank Tallis' Max Liebermann,  Vienna Blood: A Max Liebermann Mystery , Jonathan Barnes'  The Somnambulist: A Novel , Shirley Tallman's  Murder on Nob Hill , Micahel Pearce's  The Mamur Zapt & the Return of the Carpet: A Mamur Zapt Mystery (Mamur Zapt Mysteries)  and  A Dead Man in Trieste , David Dickenson's  Goodnight Sweet Prince , Boris Akunin's masterful  The Winter Queen: A Novel (An Erast Fandorin Mystery) , and of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's  The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Heirloom Collection) ). On the recommendation of Amazon, I was introduced to Will Thomas' Thomas Llewellyn, a chip off the block of these other brilliant sleuths._To Kingdom Come_ is the second book featuring Thomas Llewellyn, taking place just after  Some Danger Involved: A Novel . Here, Llewellyn and Barker are hired to infiltrate a faction of the IRA (its anteceedent, to be accurate) who have detonated a bomb at Scotland Yard and are planning on making more mayhem. As with the previous novel, Thomas cleverly has his characters cross paths with notables of the time (in this instance, a young and love-lorn W.B. Yeats and Pierre Vigny) as he ties together a riveting and historically flavored mystery.The story opens dramatically, pulls readers in and scarcely lets you go until the tragic end ... precisely the sort of distraction that draws me to this genre. For fans of period pieces, Will Thomas is a sure hit. A recommended read.

Character development, plot construction, Atmosphere, pace, all fit together perfectly. Pacing nicely varied, story line well handled, humorous relief very well done.

In the first book of the series, "Some Danger Involved", Welsh Thomas Llewelyn who is desperately poor and ready to throw himself off the London Bridge is hired by wealthy and mysterious private detective (enquiry agent) Cyrus Barker. "Some danger involved" is an understatement, but Thomas Llewelyn throws himself into doing whatever is asked of him which is stranger and more involved that he expected.In Kingdom Come Thomas continues to be the slightly funny man compared with his boss, Mr. Barker, who is always the straight man. Even more danger is involved when Thomas is sent to learn how to make bombs with a famous German bomb maker. And then, in his free time he is given stick fighting lessons. All this is preparation to infiltrate a secret Irish Brotherhood group that wants to cripple London with bombs and end the monarchy.Set in late 19th century London this book is dark yet vibrant. It is difficult to believe the author, Will Thomas, is from the U.S. Not quite as enjoyable as the first book in the series, but definitely more than worth the time. I am looking forward to the next book.

A fun read with some twists and turns.

Not as good as Some Danger Involved, but interesting background/ history on the Irish dissidents/English rule in the late 1800's.

Good condition good read.

Will Thomas is an excellent author. His stories keep you spellbound throughout the book.I would highly recommend this book for those who love murder mysteries.

Well-written, interesting characters, neat tie-ins to historical events and era. Well done. I have ordered the next book in the series.