Ratlines, by Stuart Neville, is a tricky book to like. Neville is hampered by actual history in his story of an Irish Intelligence agent trying to stop a group of soldiers–with help from a Mossad agent–from killing Nazi Otto Skorzeny. It’s not exactly a book you can wholeheartedly embrace.
I knew roughly what the book was about when I picked it up. I read and enjoyed Frederick Forsyth’s The Odessa File, and that was the kind of book I was expecting, to be honest. I’m sure I’m meant to read this book entirely from the narrator’s perspective, and understand the pull between job duties and personal ethics. But our hero, Albert Ryan, tends to feel the pull of duty much more strongly than I thought he should. I was just waiting for the book to turn into alternate history and for Ryan to join up with the rogue soldiers and kill Skorzeny.
The book opens with Ryan being called in to the Minister for Justice’s office to be given a dodgy assignment tracking down the man or men who are killing Nazis and former Nazi collaborators. It’s documented that Skorzeny and other Nazis and war criminals were given refuge in Europe, South America, and the Middle East, with or without the assistance of the local governments. Skorzeny, as Neville paints it, definitely has the help of the government. The Minister, Haughey, wants Ryan to quietly find the culprits and, it is implied, turn them over to Skorzeny. As Ryan begins to investigate, he finds that this group of soldiers is actually after money and have the help of a Mossad agent. This Mossad man is a tough character for me to wrap my head around. I can understand why an author wouldn’t want to turn him into a stock good guy. But to have Weiss sell out his country and justice by wanting money more than either? I was pretty disgusted by that, actually.
The book is pretty skimpy, too. The chapters are very short, so as to keep up the pace. For me, though, this actually made it easier to me to put the book down a lot. In the drive to keep the book racing along, Neville sacrifices characterization. Perhaps if I’d gotten to spend more time with the other characters, I would have understood them better. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if more attention had been given to the ethical dilemmas the story presents. This could have been a very interesting book. Unfortunately.