To Kingdom Come

Publisher's Summary

When a bomb destroys the Special Irish Branch of Scotland Yard, all fingers point to the increasingly brazen factions of Irish dissidents seeking liberation from English rule. Volunteering their services to the British government, Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn set out to infiltrate a secret cell of the Irish Republican Brotherhood known as the Invisibles. Posing as a reclusive German bomb maker and his anarchist apprentice, they are recruited for the group's ultimate plan: to bring London to its knees and end the monarchy forever.

Their adventures take them from an abandoned lighthouse on the craggy coast of Wales to the City of Light, where Llewelyn goes undercover with Maire O'Casey, the alluring sister of an Irish radical. Llewelyn again finds himself put to the test by his enigmatic employer as he is schooled in the deadly science of bomb making. Fraught with explosives, secret initiations, and vicious stick fights, and featuring historical figures such as Charles Parnell and W. B. Yeats, To Kingdom Come is a riveting sequel to Some Danger Involved.

©2005 Will Thomas (P)2016 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"A successful blend of fiction and fact, this is - as expected - expertly researched and skillfully plotted, with satisfying amounts of emotion (with a growing friendship between Barker and Llewelyn) and suspense." ( Library Journal)

Excellent

I enjoyed this book and the first in the series. This is one series I recommend you read in order or you will not understand some of the under tones of the characters. I do feel sorry for Lewellyn. He gets beat up ALL THE TIME. I think the author could give him a break in the next story. The characters are quirky but written in a way that makes them authentic. .

I also think these would make a great tv series.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Not nearly as good as Limehouse Text, Some Danger

What disappointed you about To Kingdom Come?

After the first few chapters, it got boring.

Has To Kingdom Come turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, sometimes an author gets tired or runs out of inspiration and doesn't do as good a job as he otherwise might have done. But I have to admit I am now leery of Will Thomas' books other than Some Danger Involved and The Limehouse Text. Thomas has talent but I think he ran out of good ideas.

What about Antony Ferguson’s performance did you like?

Antony Ferguson is fabulous.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom, disappointment.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fell asleep for 2 hrs and missed nothing

It was a decent book but nothing extraordinary.
Around middle to 2/3 through it just dragged.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

some parts are better than others

This is a good addition to the series, but it's a bit diminished by the protracted romance and unnecessary setting shifts.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Perfect Nonsense

A bang-up tale in the Sherlock Holmes tradition without being a precious shadow of a Holmes novel. It you want a few hours diversion, a good listen as the miles go by, this is the thing. Barker is a Scottish, Chinese raised, physical and mental paragon. His Watson, LLewellen is an Oxford trianed, and prison acquanted Welshman. Their adventures in this book involve going underground to foil a bomb plot by an Irish revolutiionary faction. There is plenty of excitement, entertaining characters, Victorian atmosphere. The author has the tension, release, tension, release thing down pat. The Irish plotters are 3 dimensional and the quthor does not fall in love with them. There is lots of violence but very little blood and grume. In all it is nonsense perfectly done.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent! I love this series. Very entertaining!

the story is very thorough and detailed, but not to the extent to cause boredom. The characters are all different and complementary with their own unique quirks. lots of fun from start to finish!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Second winner

The second installment of a Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn story is another winner. This time there is an Irish conflict and it requires their services to save the day. Cyrus uses his great detecting skills and Thomas still has a problem with the ladies. The pair infiltrate an Irish extremist group to solve what would become an ongoing conflict with the Irish and the Church of England. Antony Ferguson does an excellent job of mixing historical facts within the mystery.

Cyrus amazes us with his ability to assume the role of an Irish revolutionary, while Thomas struggles with the lethally weaponry and women’s wiles. I enjoy the juxtaposition of the characters of the Cyrus and Thomas. Cyrus is so confident, skilled and informed, while Thomas is a gangly newborn colt totally inexperience in the situation

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Not as good as the first in the series

This is an OK story, and it does have some interesting historical info. But it was pretty predictable. And the narrator's German accent is dreadful. His French accent is not much better, but there is much less of it.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Another Winner!

Would you consider the audio edition of To Kingdom Come to be better than the print version?

I much prefer the audio versions of this series.

What did you like best about this story?

Odd characters with unique skills and points of view. Plot twists along within the historic goings on of the era.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It garnered a variety of reactions that whet my appetite for the rest of the series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great story - reader is ok

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The story is quite entertaining - and the reader does well with English accents, and is pretty decent with Scot's accents and Irish accents - but he sounds like he's from the West Indies when attempting a German or French accent. It's funny, but really not good at all. Also, the protagonist, Thomas Llewellyn, is Welsh - but Ferguson gives him an English accent.

What aspect of Antony Ferguson’s performance would you have changed?

He needs to work on European accents - and he needs to give Thomas Llewellyn the accent he should have.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Someone Call Llewelyn an Ambulance!

This series already feels like it is settling down into a familiar and comfortable rhythm. The narration is smoothly consistent and the two main characters continue to develop and share a good chemistry. I was a little surprised that after the first book seemed to spend quite some time introducing an impressive array of characters in London very few of them made more than a small dent in this storyline which largely takes place outside of the capital.

That storyline is enjoyable though and we are introduced to another set of very interesting characters as Thomas delves into a terrorist plot. Once again he demonstrates that some of the problems that are besetting the modern world are actually nothing new except perhaps in scale and effect.

If things do carry on this way poor Llewellyn is going to have one of the most bruised and battered bodies in fiction. The book starts and ends with him in dire straits and he takes quite a battering in between.

I don't think this series will be everyone's cup of tea but I think if you liked the first book this one should also please and I'm going to enjoy sipping from it occasionally as it unfolds further.

7 of 12 people found this review helpful

Alight

The narrator needs to learn how to pronounce welsh at the correct speed and with a welsh accent , he sounded like he was practicing welsh after opening a language book five seconds beforehand

excellent entry in the series

fast paced adventure in persuit of fanatical terrorists intent on destroying London and the monarchy

OK for a easy listening crime novel.

I like the narrator but I felt he struggled somewhat with the Irish accent, which I found a little annoying (may just be me).

Story is fine, nothing fantastical but a good enough plot and you care about the two main characters.

So overall I'd rate OK and would listen to another in the series.

Not bad but I found the Irish accent lacking.

Not just the Irish accent was not up to scratch but one or two of the other voices were a bit lame. Not a major problem but a slight let down. Aside from that it wasn't a bad rendition of a fairly good book. I thought book one was better so I'll be able to judge more when I hear the next one in the series.

Disappointed

Very disappointed with this second book, I had enjoyed the first one. I read a review prior to purchasing which said it was an acurate portrayal of Anglo - Irish history. and like I already said I had read the first book in thd series and it was very readable, which is why I returned to this author. The only acurate nature of this story is the mention of Parnell, home rule, and the American financial assistance to the IRB.
The narrators pronunciations are dreadful, which an almost unforgiveable mistake, all one has to to is a little research. The Irish accents sound like really bad Scottish accents and the German accent sounds like a combination of Nigerian and Jamaican, they were in fact farcical.
I honestly wanted to like the book as I'm a fan of Victorian detective fiction, now I feel like I've waisted a credit and don't think i want to listen to books 3&4...Sorry.

2 of 4 people found this review helpful

Shocking narration and an uninspiring plot

The fist instalment in this series actually promised much more than the sequel delivered. This second book in the Barker and Llewelyn series falls at the first hurdle with the really abominable narration by Anthony Ferguson. There are too many characters from different parts of the country and abroad, and his appalling attempts, specifically at Irish but in virtually all of the other accents required, made listening to this book a joke, and not in a good way. Surely anyone can do the good old stock German villain voice, think Goldfinger? Not Ferguson. A soupçon of French - think Antoine de Caunes from Eurotrash - we can all do that can't we?! Not Ferguson - you get the idea. Admittedly, Irish is hard for a layman (from anywhere but the Emerald Isle) to nail but a paid voice actor...

However, the disappointing nature of this novel can't be solely laid at Ferguson's door (although if I were Will Thomas, I'd want my money back). No, the plot is much more prosaic and predictable than the first book and the denouement is, frankly, patronising. The 'revelation' of the identity of the arch villain may have titillated a Victorian audience but a modern reader knew the outcome of the crime wasn't going to hold any surprises. The love interest bit was also tiresome.

The rest of the plot does jolly you along to a certain extent and it wasn't a total loss but this one only just misses out on being a total clanger.

3 of 6 people found this review helpful