Right Hand Up to God: No More Will Die - by Malcolm J. Croan

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A Powerful, Fast-Paced Thriller

An incredible read! I’m still reeling. Once I picked up this book, I couldn’t put it down. What began as a horrific birth in the untamed Florida Everglades leads ten-year-old Lori and her baby brother, Michael, to the decrepit houseboat of Casey and Christy MacGowan, their only familial refuge in a storm of pain and regret. Father Fitzpatrick attempts to guide and counsel the youngsters, but Lori is too pretty to remain unnoticed for long. Soon, her young body draws the eyes of even her uncle, but Lori ensures that Casey’s brutal assault doesn’t remain unanswered. Casey’s unexpected death leaves the local authorities with too many questions and Lori is shipped off to a convent to mend her ways.

Far away in Belfast, Lori’s half brother, Shaun O’Brien, lies gasping beneath his sister’s bullet-riddled body. Kelly’s death so angers Shaun that he is ripe pickings for Hugh Devlin, an old school I.R.A. man. Little by little, Shaun learns from terrorism’s best and his life runs a path of death and destruction, eventually drawing the attention of anti-terrorist officer Peter Doyle.

Meanwhile, Lori finds some happiness beneath the Florida sun in the company of Bruce and Roy, two rich brothers from Australia who seem determined to enjoy life in all of its facets. Unfortunately, a storm casts their luxury yacht into the world of Vigo Tortosa, a drug dealing entrepreneur who will stop at nothing to keep his illegal operation beneath the eyes of the law. In a cruel twist of fate, Shaun is sent to eliminate Lori and Bruce, but something stops him. Lori’s face seems achingly familiar.

Lori and her new husband, Bruce MacDonald, find a new life on his father’s Australian cattle ranch and Lori is ecstatic when her brother Michael joins them on the station. Michael, however, feels a higher calling and soon joins the seminary, eventually becoming a Roman Catholic priest. His first assignment: Belfast.

In a swirling vortex of violence, Shaun seeks out Peter Doyle, a man who stands for all he is against. Unfortunately, Shaun is wounded in the crossfire and stumbles into a nearby church, coming face to face with the new Father Michael. Aiding and abetting a known fugitive does not sit well with the local authorities and Father Michael is imprisoned in Maize Prison, one of the most horrific and degrading places on Earth.

Lori plays a dangerous game as she tries to free her brother, Michael, calling upon past favors and playing one dangerous player against another. Can one woman triumph against the odds as the growing web of terror closes around her? Or will Michael, like Christ, allow himself to be nailed upon the cross of power so that others might live? Right Hand Up to God will find the reader frantically turning the pages as a tsunami of excitement and intrigue, desperation and terror race headlong toward the tumultuous conclusion.