Rum Ration
the Navy Network

This is a hardbacked book, well researched and very readable, telling the story of crime and punishment in London from 1381 (Roger Legett – a ‘questmonger’) to Styllou Christofi who killed her daughter-in-law and was hanged in 1954.

I found the stories of the murders, court cases and punishments interesting, but was utterly fascinated by the descriptions of life, society, policing and the strange workings of the law throughout this period. The book covers topics from ‘baby farming’ to highway robbery, whilst describing streets, buildings, professions and moral codes that have long gone. I was interested by the development of policing and forensic science, which are also included.
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Two Brothers is now my fiction Book of the Year 2012!

This story is very loosely based on Ben Elton’s own family; it is fiction but his own family’s history is remarkably similar. His grandfather was a refugee from the Nazis and his uncle fought for the British while a cousin of his father fought with the Wehrmacht. Ben Elton has written a fantastic story of two boys growing up in Berlin, in Nazi Germany in the 1920/30s.

I don’t normally like books which have been written as flash-backs but in this one it works perfectly, each part segueing into the other neatly so there is little danger of losing the plot. The plot or rather plots, are very complicated and woven into each other. It starts off in 1956 with an interview with British Intelligence and a former soldier by the name of Stone, formerly Stengel about a letter received from a Stasi officer in East Berlin. Why did Stone get this letter, is he a Russian spy, is he thinking of going over to the other side? This letter is the plot that runs throughout the book. The second plot is about two bothers born on 24 February 1920. There were complications with the birth and the twins that were expected did not materialise as one died in childbirth. However, in the next ward is a baby boy born at the same time whose mother did not survive. The family expecting twins were asked and agreed to take the orphan boy in place of their stillborn. This they did. The family were Jewish, the other woman was pure German. A fact that had absolutely no place in the decisions made at the time. But which would come back to haunt them in later years!

On the same day as the boys were born another birth took place – that of the Nationalsocialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) which came to be known as the Nazi Party.

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In the past couple of books I thought that Lee Child was dropping off the pace a bit and just writing novels with Jack Reacher’s name attached. This book is different and is back to the Jack Reacher that brought me to collecting the series. This is a cracking thriller with all the ingredients that Child brought to the character which endeared us so much to him! It seems apparent also that Child agrees with most ARRSERs about the actor who is going to be playing Reacher on the big screen as on page 8 of this book he reminds us forcefully of his size: “Reacher was a big man, 6’ 5” inches tall, heavily built......” It is going to be interesting to see how a midget can play the part!!

Anyway, back to the book. Reacher is hiking from one part of America to another, which is his norm, and sticks out his hand, thumb up in the universal hitchers’ sign. Several cars pass him, don’t fancy picking up such a huge stranger who also happens to be sporting a fresh raw wound to the bridge of his nose, a hangover from the previous novel. After a while a car pulls in with two guys and a woman on board; they are dressed alike so JR assumes they are corporate people on their way to a sales/office seminar somewhere. It soon becomes clear to him though that these people are not what they seem, coupled with the police road blocks that they have to go through.

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