Having recently been captivated by Geoffrey Household’s classic cat-and-mouse thriller “Rogue Male,” I was looking forward to reading the sequel. He knew the reviews were mixed, but he had to know the end of the story. He first had to find a copy. It’s out of print, but I was able to buy an old book from the library online. Although it was written in 1982, some forty years after the first, and the plot is dated as “Rogue Justice”, it offers a worthy conclusion to the story.

The book begins with a foreword by Saul Harding, the protagonist’s legal counsel, bringing new readers up to speed. He recounts how Raymond Ingelram (unnamed in “Rogue Male”) took a passport from Major Quive-Smith, after killing him, and used it to return to Germany, hoping to successfully assassinate Hitler. When the Gestapo finds out about his fake passport, he is arrested and held in Rostock. The prison is destroyed in a British air raid and he escapes. This is where Raymond’s further adventures begin as he studies the capture and travels to occupied Poland.

There are big differences between this book and “Rogue Male”. The first book focuses on the hunter and the hunted: the hero pitting his intelligence and resilience against his worthy opponent, Commander Quive-Smith. The battle of wits between these two, how they try to outsmart each other, is truly engrossing. In the second book there is no antagonist, it is Ingelram who flees from the Nazis in the hope of having another chance to kill Hitler. The sequel has more adventures, different locations, and interesting supporting characters, and yet much of the suspense is gone. Having the hero and his target remain nameless provides an aura of greater mystery in “Rogue Male” that doesn’t appear in “Rogue Justice.” That being said, it’s still a great story. Espionage, intrigue, and betrayal lead to an unexpected and disturbing conclusion.

Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 3, 1984)

ISBN: 978-0140068535

Pages: 208