Thursday, June 11, 2009

FFB- Let Us Prey

Let Us Prey by Bill Branon

This weeks Friday Forgotten Book was inspired by Bill Criders recent entry about the book Open Square
On April 19th, 1995 I was awoken by one of my house mates to the news that there had been a bombing at some federal facility in Oklahoma. Later that day I had my Investigation class, where we were already slated to talk about the unit on terrorism. I recall my Prof. Dr. D. Payne, being very careful to not jump to conclusions about the days events but finding himself in a very teachable moment. As the story of what happened in Oklahoma started to come to light, I found myself thinking back to todays FFB, Let Us Prey by Bill Branon which I had finished reading only a couple of weeks earlier.

Let Us Prey is more of a thriller than a mystery or crime story, the story follows a a pair of hit men as they get caught up in a domestic terror plan to destroy IRS offices and disrupt the funding of the US government. Along the way there are twists and turns, and red herrings and all the kinds of stuff that makes for a solid page turner. There wasn't a lot of talk about this book in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, but it had an eerie resonance. I did check out Branon's follow up, which really didn't connect with me, but Let Us Prey has stayed in the back of my mind all these years, and is on my mental list of books that I need to re-read.

Thoughts, Comments, Conspiracy Theories?

3 comments:

Cullen Gallagher said...

I hadn't heard of this book or author before. Sounds interesting – what are his other books like, and why didn't you connect with them at the time?

Iren said...

What didn't I connect with, I really don't recall. I read his second (and it looks like last) book when it came out in paperback. As I recall it was just lacking an element that let us prey had, an energy and feeling of everything falling in to place. I think also that the lack of more books. it sounds like Let Us Prey was expected to be a block buster and wasn't, then Devils Hole, his second book, didn't do anything either-- and that was the end of the writing career. Of course if anyone out there has any other info I'd love to hear it.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Sorry, Eric. A confusing week.