Ratlines, Neville - B

                                          The author is a very skilled and oft-awarded novelist, who resides in Belfast.  His books are set in both the North and the Free State.  Here, the place is Dublin, and the time is the months preceding JFK's June 1963 visit.  Albert Ryan, former British soldier and Member of the Directorate of Intelligence, is tasked with the assignment of getting to the bottom of the assassinations of Nazis hiding in Ireland. The 'ratline' here refers to the various escape routes out of Europe to South America utilized by the Nazis and facilitated by their collaborators.  Unbeknownst to me, the Irish did allow Nazis to come to Ireland and this book centers around  SS Col. Otto Skorzeny, noted for rescuing Mussolini in 1943 from the hands of those who would turn him over to the Allies.  Skorzeny owned property in County Kildare and was befriended by Charles Haughey, later the Irish PM.  Ryan winds up on the wrong side of both Skorzeny and his putative boss, Haughey, as well as the British and Israelis chasing Skorzeny. It's a miracle he survives. But he does, thus resulting in  a fun read.