Caro - Bernard Packer

What could be a better Christmastime book than the story of a man plotting revenge against his friend who sold him out to the Nazis?

Jack Ritter's serving on a ship as a messboy because he thought he needed to figure out some things about life. Mostly he finds himself intrigued by the ship's carpenter, Henry Carr, who remains aloof from most of the crew. It's a good call, because Carr used to be Wolf Karol, a skilled Austrian surgeon whose best friend and his wife let Karol and his two sisters enter their home during the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland, so they could call the goose-steppers.

Ritter got Carr to enjoy the night life in Puerto Acero, and while out on the town, sees his old friend, running a nightclub/brothel under an assumed name. So Carr/Karol decides it's time for revenge, and leaves the ship to set himself up as a benevolent local doctor. Because it isn't sufficient for him to merely kill his old friend, he wants to take from him what Karol lost.

Packer waits a long time before actually outlining that, so for most of the book, all we know is that Carr refuses to simply kill Brenner/Arnstedt, but not what he has in mind. Only that he's establishing himself as a pillar of the community, and that he really wants a mobile medical unit.  I have to admit, I thought Carr was an idiot for not just killing Brenner and being done with it, until he actually reveals what he has planned. The idea seemed worth holding off for.

Packer teases the idea of whether the revenge will actually happen through a variety of ways. Will Brenner figure out who Carr really is (he doesn't look like himself, due to an ugly or fortunate twist of fate, depending on your perspective)? Will someone else who hates Brenner act first? Will Carr decide he actually likes the life he's built, and it's better to just let the past go?

'"Cono!" Pino sputtered. "Mexico? A magnificent country. You imperialists are lucky you didn't conquer the entire land. Then you'd have to travel all the way to Guatemala to get your heroin and abortions. I spent two years in jail in Durango."'