Word: barker
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...Kingdom,” Thomas unleashes this team on the urgent subject of terrorism. It is May 30, 1884, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a terrorist organization working to liberate the Emerald Isle from British rule, has just detonated a bomb at Scotland Yard. Barker and Llewelyn immediately offer their services to the government and infiltrate a secretive IRB faction, posing as a German bomb maker and his assistant. They must work to earn the group’s trust while preparing to stop its ultimate plan to bring London to its knees—without concern for innocent...
...most basic level, “Kingdom” is only a partial success. The writing is at times clumsy, and almost every character seems cut out of cardboard (something especially evident when a burly Scotland Yard cop hilariously bullies Barker with the prospect of preventing him from teaching his “precious physical training classes” and when the criminal mastermind maniacally blathers like the worst sort of Bond villain). Still, Thomas maintains a brisk pace, and the read is quick and often...
...Patriotism aside, I fail to see what you hope to gain,” the British Spymaster tells Barker of his mission...
...concerned,” Barker later says, doing his best Rambo impression, “it became my affair when they injured innocent London citizens and damaged public buildings...
Even the president’s conservative Protestant religiosity finds its way into the novel—Barker freely quotes Scripture, complete with chapter and verse citations—and, indeed, an emphatic and annoying self-righteousness underlies Thomas’ political posturing...