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Rogue Male #2
Rogue Justice
The gripping sequel to the 1939 classic crime masterpiece, ROGUE MALE.
When the Rogue Male misses his chance to assassinate Hitler in peacetime, he goes undercover in Nazi Germany looking for a second opportunity.
Here, he declares his own personal war and recklessly fights his way across occupied Europe, with the Gestapo hot on his heels.
Battling against Nazi ideology, he's transported across a continent, allied with escaping Jews and resistance groups, as he seeks justice for the evils done to the land, the people and the woman that he loved.
When the Rogue Male misses his chance to assassinate Hitler in peacetime, he goes undercover in Nazi Germany looking for a second opportunity.
Here, he declares his own personal war and recklessly fights his way across occupied Europe, with the Gestapo hot on his heels.
Battling against Nazi ideology, he's transported across a continent, allied with escaping Jews and resistance groups, as he seeks justice for the evils done to the land, the people and the woman that he loved.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
46 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Household
96 books88 followersBritish author of mostly thrillers, though among 37 books he also published children's fiction. Household's flight-and-chase novels, which show the influence of John Buchan, were often narrated in the first person by a gentleman-adventurer. Among his best-know works is' Rogue Male' (1939), a suggestive story of a hunter who becomes the hunted, in 1941 filmed by Fritz Lang as 'Man Hunt'. Household's fast-paced story foreshadowed such international bestsellers as Richard Condon's thriller 'The Manchurian Candidate' (1959), Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' (1971), and Ken Follett's 'Eye of the Needle' (1978) .
In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.
Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.
In 1922 Household received his B.A. in English from Magdalen College, Oxford, and between 1922 and 1935 worked in commerce abroad, moving to the US in 1929. During World War II, Household served in the Intelligence Corps in Romania and the Middle East. After the War he lived the life of a country gentleman and wrote. In his later years, he lived in Charlton, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, and died in Wardington.
Household also published an autobiography, 'Against the Wind' (1958), and several collections of short stories, which he himself considered his best work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 20, 2016
Rogue Male is a magnificent novel and one of the best spy thrillers (or thrillers of any kind, come to think of it) that I have ever read. I approached Rogue Justice with some trepidation because I had read what some reviewers on this website have said about it ("Like Rambo" for example). I also thought that it would be a very hard ask for Household to have written a satisfying sequel to his masterpiece some forty years on.
So did Household pull it off? The answer has to be an emphatic "No" but this follow-up does still contain a number of points of interest and is for the most part an enjoyable read. Rogue Justice begins with a classic Household opening (he was very good at this aspect of novel-writing). The protagonist of Rogue Male, who we learn in this volume is really called Raymond Ingelram, has returned to Germany to wreak vengeance against the Nazis in return for them having killed his wife. He is captured and imprisoned in a camp near Rostock. The Allies bomb the prison camp, killing the German major detailed to look after Ingelram. Our hero thus has the opportunity to pick his way out of the rubble of the prison camp and escape, but only if he can avoid the other prison guards, German firemen, etc. Like I said, a classic opening...
Things continue in this entertaining vein for quite a while. Ingelram does escape, and makes his way towards Berlin disguised as the dead German major. So far so good. This section of the book recalls a dark, overlooked, minor British war movie, Circle of Deception for example. Ingelram makes his way to Sweden and thence to Eastern Europe, adopting a variety of different aliases, in time-honoured Household fashion. But there the book changes, and I think the change is very much for the worse. Ingelram abandons his attempt to get close enough to Hitler to assassinate him (which was the whole point of him returning to Germany in the first place) and concentrates instead on getting clear of Nazi-occupied Europe so that he can hand himself over to the Allies and wage war against Hitler in a far more conventional manner. But it's not as easy as he thinks: he is a marked man having left a trail of dead Germans behind him in Berlin; he has to cross a number of frontiers manned by the Nazis; his papers and multiple identities mean that it is hard for him to convince his allies that he is really not a German spy; and he doesn't know who he can trust to help him. Aided by various bands of partisans, this part of the book got bogged down in repetition: up one ridge, down into a valley, up another ridge, descend to kill some Germans, up onto the ridge again, rest up for the night, down into the valley again, repeat ad nauseum. There are a few amusing and entertaining diversions in this part of the book interspersed among all the tedium but it must be said that it's heavy going for the most part.
Finally, Ingelram breaks free of the dull circle of events that Household has imprisoned him in and the eager reader (i.e. me) looks forward to a resounding conclusion, like that in the same author's Watcher in the Shadows. But it never arrives and the book fizzles out disappointingly, almost as if the protagonist's spirit has been broken by the intense ennui of his predicament up until this point.
In passing, it is interesting that it is made clear in this follow-up that Ingelram went to Germany in the first instance to assassinate Hitler; in Rogue Male, it is simply an unnamed European dictator who is his intended quarry. I can only imagine that Household's publishers were a little twitchy about the likely consequences had the Germans won the war and Hitler had come looking for the head of the firm who had published a 'decadent' book about an attempt on his life!
Household's lesser novels have a cold, distancing quality, a lack of humanity even, and Rogue Justice unfortunately falls into that category. This is not a bad novel by any means, just a mediocre, undistinguished one. The adventures are not exciting enough to maintain interest in the story and the prose has a 'writing by numbers' feel to it. A great shame because the further I penetrate into Household's oeuvre the less I like him both as a writer and a person. Hopefully there are still a few treats in store...
So did Household pull it off? The answer has to be an emphatic "No" but this follow-up does still contain a number of points of interest and is for the most part an enjoyable read. Rogue Justice begins with a classic Household opening (he was very good at this aspect of novel-writing). The protagonist of Rogue Male, who we learn in this volume is really called Raymond Ingelram, has returned to Germany to wreak vengeance against the Nazis in return for them having killed his wife. He is captured and imprisoned in a camp near Rostock. The Allies bomb the prison camp, killing the German major detailed to look after Ingelram. Our hero thus has the opportunity to pick his way out of the rubble of the prison camp and escape, but only if he can avoid the other prison guards, German firemen, etc. Like I said, a classic opening...
Things continue in this entertaining vein for quite a while. Ingelram does escape, and makes his way towards Berlin disguised as the dead German major. So far so good. This section of the book recalls a dark, overlooked, minor British war movie, Circle of Deception for example. Ingelram makes his way to Sweden and thence to Eastern Europe, adopting a variety of different aliases, in time-honoured Household fashion. But there the book changes, and I think the change is very much for the worse. Ingelram abandons his attempt to get close enough to Hitler to assassinate him (which was the whole point of him returning to Germany in the first place) and concentrates instead on getting clear of Nazi-occupied Europe so that he can hand himself over to the Allies and wage war against Hitler in a far more conventional manner. But it's not as easy as he thinks: he is a marked man having left a trail of dead Germans behind him in Berlin; he has to cross a number of frontiers manned by the Nazis; his papers and multiple identities mean that it is hard for him to convince his allies that he is really not a German spy; and he doesn't know who he can trust to help him. Aided by various bands of partisans, this part of the book got bogged down in repetition: up one ridge, down into a valley, up another ridge, descend to kill some Germans, up onto the ridge again, rest up for the night, down into the valley again, repeat ad nauseum. There are a few amusing and entertaining diversions in this part of the book interspersed among all the tedium but it must be said that it's heavy going for the most part.
Finally, Ingelram breaks free of the dull circle of events that Household has imprisoned him in and the eager reader (i.e. me) looks forward to a resounding conclusion, like that in the same author's Watcher in the Shadows. But it never arrives and the book fizzles out disappointingly, almost as if the protagonist's spirit has been broken by the intense ennui of his predicament up until this point.
In passing, it is interesting that it is made clear in this follow-up that Ingelram went to Germany in the first instance to assassinate Hitler; in Rogue Male, it is simply an unnamed European dictator who is his intended quarry. I can only imagine that Household's publishers were a little twitchy about the likely consequences had the Germans won the war and Hitler had come looking for the head of the firm who had published a 'decadent' book about an attempt on his life!
Household's lesser novels have a cold, distancing quality, a lack of humanity even, and Rogue Justice unfortunately falls into that category. This is not a bad novel by any means, just a mediocre, undistinguished one. The adventures are not exciting enough to maintain interest in the story and the prose has a 'writing by numbers' feel to it. A great shame because the further I penetrate into Household's oeuvre the less I like him both as a writer and a person. Hopefully there are still a few treats in store...
May 12, 2018
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
The hero - an anonymous, wealthy Englishman - is now caged in a German prison with scores to settle. But there's been an air raid....
Episode 2 of 5
Facing a perilous flight across occupied Europe, the aristocratic English hero must rely on his wits.
Episode 3 of 5
The aristocratic English hero is intercepted in his struggle to cross wartime enemy territory on horseback.
Episode 4 of 5
The aristocratic English hero makes it to Romania, but trouble is in store on the way to Istanbul.
Episode 5 of 5
Fuelled by unremitting vengeance, the aristocratic English hero's personal war with the Third Reich finally comes to an end.
Read in 5 parts by Michael Jayston.
Geoffrey Household's sequel to his acclaimed British thriller 'Rogue Male' was published over 40 years later in 1982.
Abridged by Patricia Hannah.
Producer: David Jackson Young
Made for BBC 7 by BBC Scotland and first broadcast in 2009.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h...
The hero - an anonymous, wealthy Englishman - is now caged in a German prison with scores to settle. But there's been an air raid....
Episode 2 of 5
Facing a perilous flight across occupied Europe, the aristocratic English hero must rely on his wits.
Episode 3 of 5
The aristocratic English hero is intercepted in his struggle to cross wartime enemy territory on horseback.
Episode 4 of 5
The aristocratic English hero makes it to Romania, but trouble is in store on the way to Istanbul.
Episode 5 of 5
Fuelled by unremitting vengeance, the aristocratic English hero's personal war with the Third Reich finally comes to an end.
Read in 5 parts by Michael Jayston.
Geoffrey Household's sequel to his acclaimed British thriller 'Rogue Male' was published over 40 years later in 1982.
Abridged by Patricia Hannah.
Producer: David Jackson Young
Made for BBC 7 by BBC Scotland and first broadcast in 2009.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h...
September 15, 2010
Not nearly as good as the original book. The lucky escapes were lazy. But enjoyable nonetheless.
October 25, 2022
As other reviewers have said, book starts out great and then gets bogged down (to me) in eastern European resistance groups, who can be trusted, etc. A hermit defrocked priest understands English but doesn't speak it; our hero understands Latin but doesn't speak it. Our hero speaks German and English fluently, French very well, and Spanish fairly well. One of the characters who is saved is a Jewish man named Moishe Shapir--the Nazis want him so they can kill him. As I type this, I am thinking: maybe it is 4 stars so I will change it.
I would like to read other novels like this adventure-WW2 novel. I just finished Colditz which was great.
I would like to read other novels like this adventure-WW2 novel. I just finished Colditz which was great.
August 28, 2023
I loved Rogue Male - a very unusual tale, told in an unusual way, with 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.
... 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.
July 13, 2010
A sequel to Rogue Male and not quite as good, but still worth a read.
March 6, 2014
Read by David Jayston
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2018
Rogue Male was a lot to surpass with a sequel. Despite an excellent first third, Rogue Justice becomes a little tedious and then fizzles to an end.
September 7, 2025
A worthy follow-up to Rogue Male. Just as tense and just as introspective.
Read
June 2, 2021Unable to assassinate Hitler, an unnamed, archetypal English big game hunter wages a personal war against Nazi Germany across southern and central Europe. Household is a ton of fun and this is cleverer than the synopsis.
March 24, 2021
Geoffrey Household’s novel Rogue Male, written on the eve of the Second World War, told the story of a British big game hunter who decided on his own to shoot and kill an un-named European dictator. The book, considered a classic of the genre, was made into a Hollywood film directed by Fritz Lang, and in the film the dictator is clearly Hitler, as Household intended from the start.
Several decades later, Household wrote the sequel, Rogue Justice. Upon learning of this book’s existence, I was keen to read it. Rogue Male and the film both ended without us really knowing the fate of the protagonist — or Hitler for that matter. In the intervening years, Household was recruited to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), which did have a plan to kill Hitler not unlike the one Household described, and he spent some time in German-allied Romania and elsewhere. His experience there clearly provides the background to this story, set about three years after the events in Rogue Male.
But what a disappointment this book turned out to be. It is a long account of a long journey from Germany to a nunnery in the heart of Africa, via Auschwitz, Poland, Romania, Istanbul, Greece, Italian-occupied Albania, Palestine and Egypt. Not much actually happens. The protagonist — now named — is on the run. He kills some people. And that’s pretty much the whole story. Rogue Male should have been left as it was, a masterpiece of the genre, without this sequel which was, frankly, a boring read.
Several decades later, Household wrote the sequel, Rogue Justice. Upon learning of this book’s existence, I was keen to read it. Rogue Male and the film both ended without us really knowing the fate of the protagonist — or Hitler for that matter. In the intervening years, Household was recruited to the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), which did have a plan to kill Hitler not unlike the one Household described, and he spent some time in German-allied Romania and elsewhere. His experience there clearly provides the background to this story, set about three years after the events in Rogue Male.
But what a disappointment this book turned out to be. It is a long account of a long journey from Germany to a nunnery in the heart of Africa, via Auschwitz, Poland, Romania, Istanbul, Greece, Italian-occupied Albania, Palestine and Egypt. Not much actually happens. The protagonist — now named — is on the run. He kills some people. And that’s pretty much the whole story. Rogue Male should have been left as it was, a masterpiece of the genre, without this sequel which was, frankly, a boring read.
August 24, 2018
I kind of wish I hadn't read this. It's one of those sequels that tends to diminish your appreciation of the original.
I gather that Geoffrey Household was prevailed upon to write this sequel some 40+ years after his classic thriller, "Rogue Male."
The story follows the hero of "Rogue Male" on his subsequent quest to seek revenge on the Nazi regime in WW II. Neither his name nor that of his primary target was given in "Rogue Male" -- which, for me, heightened the air of mystery and immediacy in the 1939 original, even though the target (Hitler) was obvious. Here the details simply seem mundane.
The original novel was a lean, driven story from the opening moments, with a psychological inner journey that paralleled the outer journey.
This sequel is a rambling affair, the narrator wandering through war-torn Eastern European landscapes, his goals and motives changing abruptly from time to time, for no particular reason. None of it hangs together; it's just a series of events and it never gains traction. It feels as though Household wrote bits and pieces occasionally over the years, musing over possibilities, and then just stitched them together hurriedly at the end.
All in all, a disappointment. My curiosity got the better of me, and I wish it hadn't.
I gather that Geoffrey Household was prevailed upon to write this sequel some 40+ years after his classic thriller, "Rogue Male."
The story follows the hero of "Rogue Male" on his subsequent quest to seek revenge on the Nazi regime in WW II. Neither his name nor that of his primary target was given in "Rogue Male" -- which, for me, heightened the air of mystery and immediacy in the 1939 original, even though the target (Hitler) was obvious. Here the details simply seem mundane.
The original novel was a lean, driven story from the opening moments, with a psychological inner journey that paralleled the outer journey.
This sequel is a rambling affair, the narrator wandering through war-torn Eastern European landscapes, his goals and motives changing abruptly from time to time, for no particular reason. None of it hangs together; it's just a series of events and it never gains traction. It feels as though Household wrote bits and pieces occasionally over the years, musing over possibilities, and then just stitched them together hurriedly at the end.
All in all, a disappointment. My curiosity got the better of me, and I wish it hadn't.
November 28, 2015
Breathless game of cat and mouse across war-torn Europe as Raymond Ingelram, the fugitive from Rogue Male, once again tries to get close enough to Hitler in order to assassinate him by assuming the identity of the man sent by The Fuhrer to kill Raymond. A series of literally unbelievable close shaves with death and bloody vengeance follows with Ray assuming a "bewildering array of disguises", from Nicaraguan gentleman, through various German soldiers from whom he stole papers after bumping them off, he joins Polish partisans and journeys through Slovenia and Romania into Turkey, Greece, Albania, Egypt, Palestine and, bizarrely, Nigeria leaving a Ramboesque trail of destruction that eventually takes its toll. A page-turner of the "with one bound he was free" variety with enough believable detail to ring with outrageous truth.
June 3, 2019
Written in the months leading up to WWII, Rogue Male was an attack on an unnamed dictatorship. More than forty years later, Household continued the story, this time with the benefit of hindsight and the freedom to spell out the names: Hitler & Nazism. This volume often felt rushed; the Rogue protagonist darts from fight to capture to escape, again and again across Europe and the Middle East. A ripping yarn, but nowhere as good as its carefully-paced and tense predecessor.
August 6, 2021
The almost plodding nature of this journey - the tortuous narrative, the detail, the twists - honestly, I don't see that anyone could have done this better. And then; folded hands, and rest. It's such an unusual conclusion for a story begun as this was begun in the first book - but I think the author's age explains that. Age teaches one that death isn't something you escape in the end.
Generally I like to stop the story before the final ending. In this case it seems somehow necessary and rewarding.
I don't have a special taste for thrillers, but these two Rogue book of Household's are something special.
Generally I like to stop the story before the final ending. In this case it seems somehow necessary and rewarding.
I don't have a special taste for thrillers, but these two Rogue book of Household's are something special.
July 31, 2017
Rogue male returns to Germany, has again been found out and imprisoned and escapes when his prison is bombed during the war.
His adventures and vengeance against the Germans.
Much of this contains diatribes against the Germans of WWII. It is also more focused on the vengeful killings he does. He had definitely gone rogue in this bo0k.
His adventures and vengeance against the Germans.
Much of this contains diatribes against the Germans of WWII. It is also more focused on the vengeful killings he does. He had definitely gone rogue in this bo0k.
September 15, 2010
There are better books to read!
This book is well written, however I feel that the story is not the best and could be improved on in several ways. I think the most important thing in this books case is that it is written in the first person so life and death aren't the real issue for the reader.
This book is well written, however I feel that the story is not the best and could be improved on in several ways. I think the most important thing in this books case is that it is written in the first person so life and death aren't the real issue for the reader.
July 15, 2017
Excellent follow on to Rogue Male. Households own experiences are well presented, and always leave you in suspense. Great page turner that doesn't disappointment as a sequel. The 2 together are one of my all time favourite reads. Love the story, love the author.
July 21, 2019
I had many interruptions reading this book. As a result my initial view was poor but as I read on I really enjoyed it. Very different from its earlier sequel, Rogue Male, it is still a good thriller but not quite at the same level. Probably worth a re-read at some point
April 9, 2021
Not a waste of time, and not in any way annoying due to plot, characters etc. Fills out motivation behind first book. Quite Buchan-like in places. Good flow. Written when Household was 80? Not lost his touch. Vicarious pleasures for men, this kind of thing.
March 6, 2011
( Justiça Feroz )
September 2, 2012
Cheap, but fun. Like an adventure comic for young boys.
August 5, 2017
Falls short of its excellent predecessor but a good read.
June 8, 2018
Well. After the rather excellent Rogue Male, I was rather disappointed with this rambling sequel. Written 40 years after the first novel. Hmm....
March 21, 2019
Not a bad sequel but it didn’t really need to be written.
March 1, 2021
The sequel to Rogue Male, enjoyed it thoroughly. Set in WW2, and is a real thriller/adventure book. Only criticism is the ending is a bit disappointing.
February 24, 2023
This is a not a routine thriller, but a novel of rage, loss, and attempted expiation. It is by turns brutal, pedantic, loving, and mystical.
I think the hero, who has hunted animals, is trying to seek expiation in a love of nature as untamed spirit -- even a mystical expression of a sort of undogmatic love of god -- which Household wants to contrast with the corrupted and dishonest natures of human beings. Household's incandescent rage at the cruelties, the sheer baseness, of the Nazis, seems to produce in him an initial nihilist violence, and the novel's opening is bracingly harsh -- hence the accusations that the book is "too violent" and even cruel. But I think "unflinching" may be a better description.
As the book proceeds, its journey, or a sort of "travelogue", may indeed be a bit too long, but it allows a detailed account of Nazi brutality, some reflections on British snobbery and smugness, amused observations about slyness, regretful ones about dishonesty and cowardice -- in sum, the whole catalogue of human sins -- but also various reflections on humanity in its better forms. Here, then, is redemption.
Along the way, the reflections on history and landscape are needle-sharp. This is why I say the book isn't a routine thriller -- it's far more ambitious than that. For me, its flaws as a page turner are redeemed by its almost painful attempts to discuss the existential things that really matter in human lives -- one of the strengths of Fleming, in my view, is that unlike many weak imitators, he too had lived and seen for real. His superb description of place, like a Harlem nightclub, rest on his having been a superb travel journalist, and his Bond is not the moral cypher the movies made him, but a man who has suffered, is hardened, but loves the things that matter and is never cheaply sentimental or nationalistic. You can find these qualities in the Matt Helm books, too -- Donald Hamilton was a hunter, and his prose sometimes has Hemeingwayesque qualities, though they are often pretty well hidden inside the carapace of the routine, sexist thriller. I'm sure we can all think of supposed genre books that are elevated by the presence of a real writer at the tiller.
So, Rogue Justice does NOT read like Rogue Male, which is a masterpiece of minimalism. But it is largely animated by the same spirit, and is, in my view, a very powerful novel about an attempt to come to terms with fury and loss (and perhaps the dying of the light...). Is it comparable to terrible films like Fury or Inglorious Bastards, with contain cathartic bloodbaths? Comparable, but far, far better than those infantile productions. The Wild Bunch, which is brutal and tenderly resigned, is closer to Houshold.
Ultimately, this book cannot be dashed through. It isn't easy, and it isn't ideal as a bedtime read -- it is a type of literature that needs a more attentive and contemplative mindset, in my view. Then, if you're the type who like such things, its qualities of fierce passion are there to be savoured.
I think the hero, who has hunted animals, is trying to seek expiation in a love of nature as untamed spirit -- even a mystical expression of a sort of undogmatic love of god -- which Household wants to contrast with the corrupted and dishonest natures of human beings. Household's incandescent rage at the cruelties, the sheer baseness, of the Nazis, seems to produce in him an initial nihilist violence, and the novel's opening is bracingly harsh -- hence the accusations that the book is "too violent" and even cruel. But I think "unflinching" may be a better description.
As the book proceeds, its journey, or a sort of "travelogue", may indeed be a bit too long, but it allows a detailed account of Nazi brutality, some reflections on British snobbery and smugness, amused observations about slyness, regretful ones about dishonesty and cowardice -- in sum, the whole catalogue of human sins -- but also various reflections on humanity in its better forms. Here, then, is redemption.
Along the way, the reflections on history and landscape are needle-sharp. This is why I say the book isn't a routine thriller -- it's far more ambitious than that. For me, its flaws as a page turner are redeemed by its almost painful attempts to discuss the existential things that really matter in human lives -- one of the strengths of Fleming, in my view, is that unlike many weak imitators, he too had lived and seen for real. His superb description of place, like a Harlem nightclub, rest on his having been a superb travel journalist, and his Bond is not the moral cypher the movies made him, but a man who has suffered, is hardened, but loves the things that matter and is never cheaply sentimental or nationalistic. You can find these qualities in the Matt Helm books, too -- Donald Hamilton was a hunter, and his prose sometimes has Hemeingwayesque qualities, though they are often pretty well hidden inside the carapace of the routine, sexist thriller. I'm sure we can all think of supposed genre books that are elevated by the presence of a real writer at the tiller.
So, Rogue Justice does NOT read like Rogue Male, which is a masterpiece of minimalism. But it is largely animated by the same spirit, and is, in my view, a very powerful novel about an attempt to come to terms with fury and loss (and perhaps the dying of the light...). Is it comparable to terrible films like Fury or Inglorious Bastards, with contain cathartic bloodbaths? Comparable, but far, far better than those infantile productions. The Wild Bunch, which is brutal and tenderly resigned, is closer to Houshold.
Ultimately, this book cannot be dashed through. It isn't easy, and it isn't ideal as a bedtime read -- it is a type of literature that needs a more attentive and contemplative mindset, in my view. Then, if you're the type who like such things, its qualities of fierce passion are there to be savoured.
January 13, 2023
I got the impression that this book was written to cash in on the BBC version of Rogue Male,starring Peter O'Toole, which had been broadcast shortly before it was written. The plot seems one long aimless meander across Europe with one improbable escape following another. The ending is a kind of liesbestod with the hero and a lioness, who seems to be a re-incarnation of his lost love, dying entwined in each other's arms/paws. Perhaps Geoffrey Household could think of no more satisfying conclusion.
I feel also that the book is weakened by giving the hero and other main characters names and making it clearer the gruesome way the hero's beloved was killed. The hero's name turns out to be Ray Ingleram which seems to me an attempt at an anagram of Rogue Male. I can think of better ones,such as Leo Magrue or Lee Morgan (altho this isn't a true anagram).
A book to read for completeness's sake, but be prepared to be bored.
I feel also that the book is weakened by giving the hero and other main characters names and making it clearer the gruesome way the hero's beloved was killed. The hero's name turns out to be Ray Ingleram which seems to me an attempt at an anagram of Rogue Male. I can think of better ones,such as Leo Magrue or Lee Morgan (altho this isn't a true anagram).
A book to read for completeness's sake, but be prepared to be bored.
Read
July 8, 2022From Follett
After years on the run, an assassin seeks vengeance against the Nazis It & rsquo;s been four years since Raymond Ingelram failed to kill Hitler. All it took was a slight change in wind to force his bullet wide and put the entire German secret service on his tail. Ingelram ran to England, where he went to ground in the wilds of Dorset and finally escaped his pursuers. Safe at last, he does the only thing that makes sense: He decides to go back to Germany. War is raging across Europe, and Hitler deserves death more than ever. Infiltrating the Reich with a forged passport, Ingelram is thrown into a provincial prison & mdash;only to be freed by a stray RAF bomb. Wearing a stolen Nazi uniform, he again goes to ground ... and forms a plan to tear Nazi Germany apart from the inside out.
After years on the run, an assassin seeks vengeance against the Nazis It & rsquo;s been four years since Raymond Ingelram failed to kill Hitler. All it took was a slight change in wind to force his bullet wide and put the entire German secret service on his tail. Ingelram ran to England, where he went to ground in the wilds of Dorset and finally escaped his pursuers. Safe at last, he does the only thing that makes sense: He decides to go back to Germany. War is raging across Europe, and Hitler deserves death more than ever. Infiltrating the Reich with a forged passport, Ingelram is thrown into a provincial prison & mdash;only to be freed by a stray RAF bomb. Wearing a stolen Nazi uniform, he again goes to ground ... and forms a plan to tear Nazi Germany apart from the inside out.
April 1, 2025
While it is good to experiment with books you would not normally consider, sometimes the experiment fails. Such was the case with ‘Rogue Justice’. First published in 1982, this is a WW2 adventure; one in which the hero lurches predictably from near death to escape, to yet more narrow misses and sundry feats of bravery, etcetera. Even though author Geoffrey Household tries to shake up the formula by allowing his protagonist moments of self-reflection, it does little to disrupt the monotony of the ‘I did this, I shot this Nazi, I pulled off another daring getaway’. That said, Household’s prose is tight and pacy and he redeems himself in the final ten pages with a sudden burst of overdue character development. However, it remains pulp fiction, barely more than an Oxbridge accented, boy’s own trawl through the numerous cliches of war drama and ethnic stereotype. Best appreciated as kitsch.
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