Ratlines
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4.1 • 15 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Ireland 1963. As the Irish people prepare to welcome President John F. Kennedy to the land of his ancestors, a German national is murdered in a seaside guesthouse. Lieutenant Albert Ryan, Directorate of Intelligence, is ordered to investigate. The German is the third foreigner to die within a few days, and Minister for Justice Charles Haughey wants the killing to end lest a shameful secret be exposed: the dead men were all Nazis granted asylum by the Irish government in the years following World War II.
A note from the killers is found on the dead German's corpse, addressed to Colonel Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's favorite commando, once called the most dangerous man in Europe. The note simply says: "We are coming for you."
As Albert Ryan digs deeper into the case he discovers a network of former Nazis and collaborators, all presided over by Skorzeny from his country estate outside Dublin. When Ryan closes in on the killers, his loyalty is torn between country and conscience. Why must he protect the very people he fought against twenty years before? Ryan learns that Skorzeny might be a dangerous ally, but he is a deadly enemy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set on the eve of President Kennedy's 1963 visit to Ireland, this thrilling, historically informed stand-alone from Irish author Neville (Stolen Souls) charts the efforts of Irish intelligence officer Albert Ryan to discover who murdered three Nazis granted asylum in Ireland after WWII. Ryan has to be wary of real-life Col. Otto Skorzeny, one of the most dangerous surviving Nazis, to whom a note on one of the bodies was addressed: "We are coming for you." In his digging, Ryan learns of the titular "ratlines," the secret routes use to ferry postwar Nazis from one safe place to another. Complicating Ryan's investigation is his growing attraction to Celia Hume, a woman of mysterious means whose job it is to charm important men and ascertain secrets. As Ryan tracks the killer, he meets Mossad agent Goren Weiss, who's intent on getting to Skorzeny. Readers will hope to see more of Ryan, a formidable yet damaged hero.
