Now and in the Hour of Our Death

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

During the 1980s the situation in Northern Ireland was particularly
dangerous. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provos) was trying to
force the British to withdraw from their six provinces. They raided the
barracks, ambushed soldiers, and murdered indiscriminately—and the
Brits responded. Each side tried to infiltrate the other, and the Provos
in particular showed turncoats no mercy.

Fiona and Davy were in love and united in their desire to see the hated
invaders gone; but whereas Fiona did not believe in violence, Davy was
an active member of the Provos.

After he was captured and jailed in the infamous Maze Prison, she
immigrated to Canada. Nine years later she is enjoying life in Vancouver
with her new boyfriend. She has lost touch with Davy but has never
forgotten him. When she hears that there has been a jailbreak and that
Davy will likely head for Vancouver, Fiona faces a difficult choice.
Does she want him to disrupt the peaceful life she has built for herself
in Canada?

The writing is repetitive and clumsy at times, but Taylor’s
characters are well defined and believable, average human beings caught
up in and moulded by a long-running feud that is only now winding down.
By turns sweeping and intimate in its scope, Now and in the Hour of Our
Death is a book worth reading.