Sunday 3 January 2021

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household

 

"The dogs might have found me, but their master, whoever he was, never gave them a chance."

You might notice I've complained about the pacing of a number of novels I've reviewed in 2020. This is the antithesis. Rogue Male is a thriller with a capital 'T'. The pace never lets up and it is almost exhausting to read as you are carried away with the protagonist's escape journey.
A foiled assassination attempt leads to the capture and torture of the would be assassin ( our protagonist), his unlikely escape from the clutches of death begins a relentless struggle for survival that propels the reader further at a startling pace through every page.
Will he make it? Your fingers will be clutching at the pages with intensity, clawing their way forward as your stress levels rise.

The edition I read had an introduction by Robert Macfarlane with spoilers which thankfully advised that they lay ahead and to revisit the introduction after reading the novel - advice which I happily followed and suggest you do too.It notes that the book was adapted in 1941 'poorly' according to Macfarlane as Man Hunt, by Fritz Lang - and I'm eager to see that now to draw my own conclusions.






4 out of 5 - just run!

No comments:

Post a Comment