Rogue Justice

By: Geoffrey Household

Narrated by: Robin Browne

After a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in peacetime, the mysterious hero of Geoffrey Household's classic 1939 thriller Rogue Male goes undercover in the heart of Nazi Germany, scheming and planning for a second opportunity.

When his cover is blown, he makes his way to neutral Sweden and reports to the British Embassy, where his story is not believed, and he is sent back to Germany. With nothing to lose, the rogue male declares his own reckless private war, with no intention of taking prisoners. His crusade against Nazi ideology takes him through Poland, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Greece and finally, via sunken ships and hi-jacked planes, to Palestine and then Africa.

Bluffing and fighting his way across occupied Eastern Europe, he allies himself to Jews escaping their fate in Auschwitz, partisans and resistance groups; always with the Gestapo on his tail. But his enemies find to their cost that hunting a professional big game hunter is a dangerous game. Rogue Justice, written 40 years after the sensational Rogue Male, is far more than a non-stop action thriller. It paints a picture of a Europe lost to the brutality of Nazi aggression and how one noble spirit seeks justice for the cruel wrongs done to the land, the people - and the woman - he loved.

Yet it is in Africa, where he honed his skills as a predator, that destiny, love and death finally combine to conclude our hero's story.

©1984 Geoffrey Household (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

A lesser Rogue Male

I loved Rogue Male - a very unusual tale, told in an usual way by an unusual protagonist. In that novel, the hero's name isn't revealed, neither is the country he was in, nor the ruler he attempted to kill (even if not particularly difficult to divine). The protagonist was elusive, smart, acerbic, ingenious ... and quirky in some of his strange choices. But again, I loved it - and how it buried itself ever deeper into that hole until the hole was all there was - with just a protagonist on one side, an antagonist on the other - and seemingly no way out ...

... Rogue Justice was delivered decades (1982) after the original (1939) and it did what the original had not done, it revealed country, target - and the name and history of our protagonist ... that in itself destroyed some of the special charm it had originally had. In addition, where the original is more and more zeroing in, this sequel rambles across Europe and beyond. There are some enjoyable moments of danger and friendships - but overall it doesn't come anywhere near close Rogue Male.

I very much did enjoy the ending the author chose to give his protagonist. It was, in its way, glorious, epic - and entirely fitting. Won't spoil it, of course. So if you've read Rogue Male, you won't mind Rogue Justice because you get to spend some more time with the hero of the tale - a swan song of sorts - and you'll get to be with him for that aforementioned end.

First-rate performances all-round

A sequel to his 1939 novel Rogue Male, Rogue Justice (1982) was also written by Geoffrey Household. It is a brief, "relaxed" first-person thriller. Narrator Richard Ingleram, having failed a second time to get close enough to Hitler to murder him, flees east, then south. Poland, Romania, Greece, Turkey, British Palestine, and Egypt each offer him precarious cover to evade Nazi pursuers. Once he reaches Haifa, the UK mandate authorities assume he's an Oswald Mosley type British fascist.

The justice Ingleram comes to seek is physical oblivion. His personal vendetta has failed, but has blown-back to dirty his own values. His only priority is not to shame his family name.

Rogue Justice is a fine novel, first-rate as a thriller and a story of ethical awakening. Reversals of fortune abound. In the end, death drive becomes death wish.

it has some flaws, but stick with it.

It is a good sequel to Rogue Male. The story has some flaws, it is a little disjointed in the beginning, but stick with it. It's worth the ride.