Review: Killing Thatcher

Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rory Carroll's telling of the Brighton hotel bombing is a riveting piece of non-fiction, it is written in a way that is gripping and riveting and covers a breadth of source material with a focus on the plot and the IRA. The research is deep, covering interviews and private notes and diary entries that seem to provide a kaleidoscopic view of events. The suspense builds easily, a factor of the brilliant source material and the style with which Carroll presents it. Once you pick it up, it is hard to put down.

Carroll does his best to be an impassionate observer, or at least unbiased with a sense of compassion and admiration for the competence and history of all the people he writes about. Amidst the excitement, he does a good job of sketching the personalities involved. Names and characters of the main players stayed with me even after they had disappeared from the story.

The broader political implications of the bomb are perhaps not discussed as clearly as I would have liked, there are brief mentions of the politicians who were impacted and the ways in which it contributed to the future of the British and Irish political movements, but it is too concise and leaves many open questions and unexplored ideas. Some more background here would have been ideal.

Carroll's style is his strength, relevant and punchy, with a penchant for bringing things to life. There were surreal bits where he would repeat the same turn of phrase but as if he had not uttered it before. These were the only bits where I had to pause because of how jarring it was. For the most part though, the writing was solid.

All in all, an excellent bit of non-fiction.

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