Rory Carroll wrote a fascinating and compelling account of the tenuous and often violent relationship between England and Northern Ireland.
I enjoyed the focus on the IRA and the lengths operatives were willing to go to in their bid to meet their goals.
I especially appreciated how objective the writing was.

I had some familiarity with the events of the "Troubles", but I had never heard about the attempted plot to assassinate Margret Thatcher. The book was fascinating, providing plenty of details about IRA plots, efforts to stop them, the major political figures, how actions by the British government and by the IRA influenced the actions of others, as well as in-depth accounts of the personal and professional lives of various individuals on both sides of the "war." What is most interesting about a book like this is the near misses. The almost successful plot to take out the Prime Minister is a perfect example, but there were numerous other instances in the book where oversights, mistakes, miscommunications involving IRA personnel and government officials led to IRA plots succeeding or failing, IRA members being captured or escaping capture, etc.

This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

This was a fabulous book. IT had wonderful pacing. I would read this author again. I would recommend this book to others.

I have been on a nonfiction kick recently and this one stood out for many reasons. I loved the honesty and emotion. I felt like I was in the moment with the author and I felt like the articulation of the circumstances were easy to understand which I appreciated with such a complex issue.

Carroll does a good job of balancing the different perspectives on the attack. He interviews both the bombers and the victims, as well as security officials and political figures. This allows him to present a more complete and nuanced picture of the event. The book is well-researched and well-written. Carroll draws on a variety of sources, including interviews, court transcripts, and government documents. He also provides a helpful timeline of the events leading up to the attack. The book is both informative and engaging. Carroll tells a gripping story, that reads like a thriller novel but is very real.

This book was incredibly well researched and was a great mix of adding in the relevant background facts without taking away from the main plot line.

This book is amazing! Irish politics has been an enduring interest for me since studying the Good Friday Agreement in college. The author centers his narrative around one particular event, but weaves in a wider history of the Troubles. This is one of my favorite books on the topic and a gripping read!

The IRA bomb exploded at 2:54 a.m. on October 12, 1984, the last day of the Conservative Party Conference in the coastal town of Brighton, England. Rooms were obliterated, dozens of people wounded, five people killed. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in the lounge of her suite preparing her keynote speech when the explosion occurred; had she been just a few feet in another direction, flying tiles and masonry might have sliced her to ribbons. As it was, she survived--and history changed. There Will Be Fire is journalistic nonfiction that reads like a thriller, a propulsive blend of true crime and political history. This is an interesting book and shows how Patrick Magee was able to plant a timed bomb in the Grand Hotel, leave and go back to Ireland and wait for the bomb to explode. It shows how they determined who planted the bomb and then how to catch him and other IRA members in Scotland and arrest them. We also get a chance to hear him sentenced and his later release from prison. It is a very highly researched book by Rory Carroll and I would like to read another book by him. If you enjoy nonfiction that reads like a thriller, then you would love this book. I would like to thank NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for a copy for an honest review.

The 1984 IRA Plot to Kill Margaret Thatcher

On the last day of the Conservative Party Convention in Brighton, the IRA planted a bomb in the hotel. The explosion destroyed rooms, and killed and injured many people. Margaret Thatcher was one of the lucky ones. In her room, working on her keynote address, she escaped injury. This book tells the story of that incident bringing the characters on both side to life.

In the early chapters we meet the participants. The author also relates the history of the conflict. I thought he did an excellent job making the reasons for the conflict clear without taking either side. I learned a lot.

The second part of the book goes into the incident and the follow-up hunt for the perpetrators. This part of the book reads like a police procedural as the police search for and arrest the bomber. To me it was astonishing that the author could elucidate the history of the conflict in a readable way and then pull the reader into a chase that reads almost like fiction.

This is one of the best and most unbiased descriptions of The Troubles I have read. It is also easy to read and moves at a good pace. If you are interested in the history of this conflict, I highly recommend this book.

I received this book from Putnam Books for this review.

Almost Killing Thatcher

I am always interested in Ireland and, in particular, the factors in play during “The Troubles.” In 1984 the Irish Republican Army planned and executed an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The leaders of the British government were nearly wiped out in one dramatic blow. “There Will Be Fire” looks at the motivations, the attack, the investigation, and the aftermath of this mission.

Being of Irish descent and having been brought up on tales of gunrunning and rebellion in our family history, I am always cautious about accounts with a slant to them. Here Rory Carroll has presented a level chronicle without exploiting emotional biases. This is journalism reading like a thriller. Publishers Weekly compared it to “Day of the Jackal” and I have to agree, the writing reminded me of Ken Follett’s gift for presenting detail in a compelling manner.

This is an important book for looking at the mindsets of people involved on both sides. Thank you to the Penguin Group, Putnam Books, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #ThereWillBeFire #NetGalley

Thank you Rory Carroll, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC e-book. The IRA takes out five people and makes an attempted assassination on the Prime Minister. Without reading this book I feel like this was completely left out in history. This opened a perspective into an era in history that I think should have been more discussed in the public schools or at least even a mention. The story is told in an unbias way that I appreciated and didn't dive too much into the why but definitely told a story that needed to be brought to the light.

This is an excellent book for those interested in the history between the IRA and the British government. It is fact that reads like fiction. It is meticulously researched and pleasantly easy to read.

A well-researched book focused on a pivotal moment during the Troubles. I think I was at a disadvantage of not knowing a lot of the history of the the Troubles so I was unfamiliar with a lot of the background. It was fine, I just didn't get engaged by it.

When Irish is in your genealogy, you tend to learn about the Troubles and how it began in Ireland's history. But most people don't. This is an excellent book that gives you a good look at the history that lead up to the IRA bombings in the 80s and to this incident in particular. By presenting all sides of the story, Carroll gives a well rounded look at how it came to be the idea of a solution to an age old problem. This is an excellent book for those interested in Irish history, and those who like history in general. We well recommend it.

In 1984, the IRA killed five people and came dangerously close to assassinating then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - and yet this disaster has gone mostly undiscussed in recent years. In this book, Carroll brings together the long chain of events which led up to the bombing, and unravels the complicated investigation that followed.

Having been to school in both the United States and India, I like to think that I have gained a wider perspective on world history than I would have otherwise, but there are definitely gaping holes in my knowledge. The Troubles are certainly a subject I have basically no knowledge about. I was glad to find that this book, while focusing on one major incident, provides the context needed to get invested in the story.

It's a complicated story that Carroll weaves, for while the book opens with the planting of a bomb in a hotel room by a single man, many events and people have a hand in getting Patrick Magee there. We follow the story on both sides, both Irish and British, placing the two major figures, Magee and Thatcher, on the larger stages upon which events play out. 

I appreciated that the author remained quite neutral on the central question that motivated the Troubles, fairly portraying the good and bad actions of both sides. I also liked the wide variety of sources that Carroll was able to incorporate, giving the reader a peek into the many people who were involved in setting up the bombing as well as bringing Magee to justice.

This is the true account of the 1984 attempt on the life of Margaret Thatcher by the IRA. A bomb was planted at the Grand Hotel in Brighton where she was attending a Conservative conference. Thatcher was spared, but five people died and many were injured, some maimed for life. In telling the story, Carroll goes into the history behind the Irish fight for freedom and significant events in this history including the assassination of Mountbatten as well as the hunger strike that resulted in the deaths of some of the IRA prisoners. He recounts the intricate investigation into the Brighton bomb and search for the perpetrators, as well as the background of the bomber and other members of the IRA. Finally, he theorizes how Thatcher’s survival shaped modern politics.

This is a very detailed, yet thrilling account of events in history. I found the story fascinating. I also liked the historical perspective going back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (“remember remember the fifth of November”).

I loved Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing; A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland and recommended it to many friends. I think this book ranks up there with Keefe’s and will certainly recommend it. Researching and writing this book was an ambitious project and Carroll provides a thorough retelling while maintaining reader interest throughout. Don’t let the fact that this is nonfiction scare you…it reads like a novel.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group Putnam for an advanced copy of this book of history on the IRA, the English, Margaret Thatcher and the lose of life that came from these troubles.

As a second-generation Irish American, Northern Ireland and the English problem were not things that came up in conversation. I knew the songs of protest, "A Nation Once Again" and another one about shamrocks being forbid by law to grow on Irish grounds, but that was mostly music at weddings and funerals played by what seemed like old people. I do remember a news segment on 20/20 that has stayed with me to this day about Belfast that I saw at nine or ten, with the Specials playing "Ghost Town", but not until I started reading history did I get a feeling for what was happening in Ireland and the North. Rory Carroll in his book, There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History, is about one specific incident and the investigation that followed, while telling the human story of those who fought on both side of "The Troubles" and makes them not caricatures, nor absolutists, but humans, just simple humans caught up in a chaos they had no control over.

The book starts with a good description of the author growing up and living through the times that he writes about, and how the germ of the idea began with a story that just expanded. From here Carroll goes into the forces on both sides, the political and the action, and we follow Margaret Thatcher the Iron Woman as she rises as the Conservative party's best hope, and soon to be enemy number 1 for the Irish Republican Army. Readers are also introduced to a young man Patrick Magee, who was born in Northern Ireland, but grew up in England, before returning again and joining the IRA. We meet future political leaders like Gerry Adams and future victims of the IRA, also, following certain people to the heights of power, and others from slums to prison and back again. Until the book culminates in the bombing of the Grand Hotel, in Brighton, England, and the investigation and arrests that follow.

A mesmerizing ride that is able to tell so much history in a short, tight, and honestly page turning book. This book reads in many ways like a procedural, but Carroll is very good at keeping the human factor front and present in the book. This is a real gift, to walk a line down the middle discussing Irish and English relations, and yet being able to make both sides human, and willing to talk. I really was in awe that I feel I know these characters, politicians, bombers, coppers and innocent victims, and knowing that this was a real story, with real people and real consequences and pain, just made the book more powerful. The waste, in life, in money, in time and hate. People would have been fishing, as one policeman wanted to, or found a new life in Denmark, as a bomber had thought he had. And yet the siren song of violence, called them all back.

A fantastic piece of history. Well told and well written. One of the best books of history I have read in awhile, and I have been blessed with a lot of good reading. One last thing that strikes me is how much chance influences our lives. There is so many ways the book could be different, if one man stayed in Denmark, if one person stayed in a bathroom. Carroll goes into that, and how different the world could and would be right now. Highly recommended, especially for readers of Tim Pat Coogan or Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.

The story of how the IRA almost killed Thatcher and her party’s top leaders. In an attack linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles.

I’m not sure I thought anyone could write an unbiased account of this but this author has done just that.

The events take place in Brighton. After decades of Irish citizens fighting for their freedom, the assassination of Lord Mountbatten, and Thatcher dismissing the hunger strike by prisoners led to ten deaths. The air was thick with resentment and tensions ran high.

The Brighton plot, among all of the other drama going on, led to a dramatic showdown with a famous and infamous cast.

This may be a nonfiction book but it reads much like a thriller!

I have always wanted to know more about this event and now I do. What an excellent piece of journalism. Well-researched and well-written.

NetGalley/April 4, 2023, Penguin Group Putnam

Whereas I found the historical backstory both necessary and interesting, it was a bit dry. But you have to get through it to get to the good stuff.

I think this book really hits its stride as it details the immediate aftermath and the fallout. That had my full attention. I found the police investigation especially interesting. With so little of the technology we have now, it’s pretty amazing how it all came together.