Fast paced with 75 short chapters. Very violent. Tells a story that is exciting and as they say in the movies based on true events. Not much is true really except that some nazi fugitives were offered asylum in the Irish Republic and that Mossad hunted nazis. Enjoyable piece of recent history fiction ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/ratlines-by-stuart-neville/

A thriller set in and around Dublin in 1962. President Kennedy is coming; a series of brutal murders has eliminated several former Nazis who had been given unofficial asylum by the Irish government, specifically by the justice minister, Charles J. Haughey; and our protagonist, Irish military intelligence officer Albert Ryan, is brought in to protect former SS commander Otto Skorzeny, the most prominent of the fugitives. It turns out (this is hardly a big spoiler, given the theme and timing) that the Israelis are behind it.

I feel rather ambivalent about the book. The violence is unrelenting, graphic and icky. Ryan as protagonist makes some very strange choices of allegiance, and it’s not clear what his motivation is. There’s a girl who performs the function of peril monkey. For all that, it’s exciting stuff, tautly written.

My other reservation is that Haughey is depicted as the sinister and corrupt bastard that he certainly became by the end of his career. But he was only 37 in 1962, and in his first real job as minister for justice, where he was an innovative and (relatively) liberal figure. I felt that his portrayal here was a bit lazy (as is the revelation that the Israelis are Behind It All).

Neville has written a lot more Irish crime fiction, and I might give some of his more contemporary stuff a try. ( )

It is often a hard sell when an author weaves real people into a fiction story that took place in the past. In this case however it worked. The book also filled in some historical ignorance I had regarding Ireland, its position during WWII, and how they allowed a number of Nazi's to settle there after the war. ( )

As a thriller, it’s fine if you like this sort of thriller. It definitely seems to have been grounded in an actual historical moment, per the acknowledgments and the list of works consulted. The chapters are short and the story is delivered at a good pace. However, it’s not for the faint of heart; there were torture scenes that had me skipping entire chapters. I also rolled my eyes a bit at the character of Celia, who seemed a bit too good to be true from a male perspective.

My rating is for my personal experience and the fact that I don’t plan to keep this book. I’ve liked other books by Stuart Neville and will continue to read his catalogue, but I wouldn’t start with this one. ( )

terrific book ( )