Cry of the Hunter — Harry Patterson

From the New York Times�"bestselling author of The Eagle Has Landed: An IRA hit man tries to walk the razor's edge when he finds himself the odd man out.
 
In these edge-of-your-seat international thrillers, Jack Higgins introduces his profoundly conflicted and deeply flawed IRA hero, Martin Fallon, trapped in a life of violence and fighting for redemption.
 
Cry of the Hunter: After joining the IRA, Martin Fallon shot up the ranks in the fight against the Brits in Northern Ireland with his tactical brilliance and fierce commitment. Then, after a daring escape from prison, he simply disappeared. After years of hiding from the world in his books and the bottle, he thinks he's out. He's wrong. The IRA wants him to break a high-ranking Ulster rebel out of prison. Fallon reluctantly agrees, but soon finds that in his absence, the IRA has changed. Those who wanted freedom have been replaced by bloodthirsty psychopaths who only crave power. Now, to save the country he loves, Fallon must turn on his own people.
 
A Prayer for the Dying: There was a time when Martin Fallon had no problem killing for his IRA brethren, without remorse or regret. But when a mistake leads to the explosion of a school bus full of children, Fallon flees to London to hide with his guilt. His seclusion is broken when he agrees to make one last killing on behalf of the criminal Meehan brothers. But when the hit is witnessed by a priest, the Meehans want the clergyman dead too. In a desperate struggle for his soul, Fallon must protect the priest by fighting the ruthless Meehans as well as his former IRA comrades, who have decided that Fallon himself needs to be silenced. Made into a film starring Mickey Rourke as Fallon, A Prayer for the Dying is a “tough . . . superbly written” thriller (The New York Times Book Review).