Rating: 4/5
Review:
A good thriller
This is a good thriller. Stuart Neville is a fine writer and this is well up to standard.
Ratlines is set in Ireland in 1963. The plot revolves around Nazi fugitives who were given safe haven in Ireland after the war, and around one real historical Nazi figure who is known to have lived in Ireland and to have met Charles Haughey (the future Taoiseach). Neville creates a fast-paced action story around these characters, featuring an Intelligence Operative, a beautiful woman, dangerous gangs...and so on. It's not unlike a classic James Bond novel in structure, although the writing is much more realistic and the action often darker.
Neville writes very well and the story is gripping. He creates pretty convincing characters (including a poisonous portrait of Haughey as a vulgar, untrustworthy, self-serving manipulator) and his evocation of the historical background and the attitudes of the time is very well done. Be warned that there is graphic violence including some vivid and prolonged scenes of torture, but they are (just) justified by the plot, I think.
It's not a profound novel, but it's an enthralling read which gives some interesting insights into a little-discussed aspect of Ireland's past. Recommended.
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