Ratlines by Stuart Neville

Ratlines by Stuart Neville, 354 pages.

Albert Ryan, was a soldier in the British Army during WWII, has left the Army by 1963, and now works for the Intelligence services. After several Breton and Nazi refugees living in Ireland are murdered, Ryan is called in to investigate. SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Otto Skorzeny, an actual former Nazi, is borrowed from real lif to be a character in this novel. He gets to play the irredeemably evil villan. He does it well, plotting against, stealing from, and torturing other characters as the book progresses. Ryan, a character caring the baggage of being a Protestant in a Catholic Land, is also looked on with suspicion for his serving in the British Army while many of his countrymen were not just neutral, but wishing to work with the Axis. Its a book that is well set in its time and place, with enough complications to keep it moving along smartly. Neville tends to let the violence get a bit graphic, and it may not be for the squeamish reader, but it is a very well done thriller.

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