To Kingdom Come by Will Thomas

Thomas Llewelyn is a young man who works for a private inquiry agent named Cyrus Barker. Normally, they take on cases involving crimes like blackmail and petty theft, but when a bomb goes off in Scotland Yard, not far from where they have their offices, Barker's office is also affected by the blast. Through normally he likes working on his own to solve crimes, this time he's motivated to offer his services to the government in hopes of discovering who set the bomb and bring the perpetrators to justice.

At first the Police and government politely turn down his offer, but when Barker offers to write to Prince Alfred and tell him that the Powers that Be didn't want his help, they decide to accept after all.

Current unrest centers around the Irish and Ireland. Ireland wishes to be free of England, and to also regain their own language and soverignty. While not all groups of Irish people believe in the violent overthrow of the English, others see no other way out than to terrorize the English into letting them be free. In fact, the target of the bomb at Scotland Yard was the new Special Irish Branch, meant to deal with the groups planting bombs. But the Bomb at Scotland Yard wasn't the only one planted that night. There were two others that either misfired or didn't go off.

But as Barker looks for the group responsible, he already has an idea on how to infiltrate the group who planted the bombs: impersonate an infamous Prussian Bombmaker known as Johannes VanRhyn, well-known for making bombs for whatever dissident group is willing to hire him. Thomas, under the name Thomas Penrith, will be introduced as his assistant. But to really learn how to make bombs, he's going to have to work with the real VanRhyn. Bomb-making is a very dangerous art. Will Thomas come home with all his fingers intact?

And at the same time, Thomas and Barker, posing as VanRhyn, will have to infiltrate the group responsible for the bombs, and convince the group of their bona fides, find the real leader and finally bring in the law to arrest them. But when the leader takes a bomb and goes off to commit mayhem, will Thomas and Barker be able to stop the bomb from going off, or will another great London landmark go up in flames... and Thomas and Barker with it?

This isn't a large, thick book, in fact, it's rather thin, but there's a wonderful story packed into these pages. Short and sweet, full of danger, bombs, physical confrontation and combat, love and attraction, and a surprising twist in the end that even I didn't suspect.

Like the perfect bite, the book's story was enough to keep my attention in a day filled with lots of things going on. The fighting and tension scenes are all appropriately menacing, and the scenes with Thomas and Maire O'Casey in Paris were exciting and somewhat Romantic, though Thomas ended up being too afraid of her brother and too much a gentlemen, to succumb to her invitations. And all the while, you'll be wondering how and when Barker and Thomas are going to turn this crew into the Police with enough evidence to secure their conviction.

I liked this book a lot, enough to make me want to check out the first volume in the series "Some Danger Involved", because while we get hints about Baker and Thomas and how they came to work together, I was intrigued enough to want to read it for myself. I recommend this book. It's worth checking out, and the story is good, like a shot of cappuccino.