Northern Spy by Flynn Berry follows two sisters, one a member of the IRA and another who reluctantly acts as a go-between, passing on important information to the British MI5.
From the cover:
Tessa is at work one day when the news of another IRA raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground in 1998, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats and security checkpoints have become features of everyday life. . .
The police believe Tessa's sister, Marian, has joined the IRA. Though her family is Catholic, they were raised to oppose the violence enacted in the name of Republicanism.
I wasn't sure of the time period the book covers and was surprised that so much violence and IRA activity was still going on. I remember living in London when IRA bombs were going off in the late 1960s and being very aware of surroundings when travelling by train on the underground or watching out for packages in the road where bombs may have been placed to explode when a car ran over them.
Unfortunately, I see much of the same violence in the U.S. today with protests that destroy, injure and kill.
Note: In a Flynn Berry conversation she states the book is written in the near future because conflict and IRA recruitment is once again arising during the Brexit tensions. She states that Americans tend to romanticize the IRA and send money to support the violent group with little knowledge of their actions.
