Eye of the Needle

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EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follet

STORY: WWII rages throughout Europe. The infamous German spy, De Needle, attempts to stay one step ahead of the MI6 agents on his tail. It quickly becomes a race to stop the German spy from revealing the truth about the upcoming Allied invasion.

MY FEEDBACK:1) CHARACTERS ¡V nice backgrounds and motivations given and the players in the story stay true to character. Characters are believable because we¡¦ve all known people like them¡Kwell maybe not like De Needle. ’º You cheer for the good guys and hate it when the bad guy succeeds, which is exactly what an author wants to accomplish in his writing. I appreciated that the ¡§good guys¡¨ were not made out to be complete idiots and actually had some great intuition in trying to capture the bad guy.

2) SETTING ¡V I¡¦ve never been to England but I¡¦ve seen plenty of movies that take place there. I think the author uses these preconceived ideas and already established visuals to help the reader know where the character is. Otherwise, when you look at it closely, I felt that he didn¡¦t spend a lot of time giving us environmental descriptions¡Ksome readers will find this a pleasing aspect while others may want more.

3) STORY ¡V For the longest time I couldn¡¦t figure out what the purpose of the ¡§sub-plot¡¨ of Lucy and David was all about and how it tied into the main storyline. But it was brought around nicely. Nice suspense and the last 50 pages are great wrap up.

4) MISC ¡V There is one love scene that is VERY descriptive and may be offensive to some readers...but luckily it is only one and doesn¡¦t carry on for too long. The book generated an overall bond with me that now I¡¦m off to watch the Donald Sutherland movie version of the book.

OVERALL ¡V Fast, easy read that brings suspense and concern for the well being of the characters. Worth getting!

This book proceeds at a brisk pace because the spy must avoid detection by ordinary Britons and escape the relentless efforts of British intelligence to track him down and stop him before he transmits critical information to Germany. These scenarios create the dramatic tension necessary to keep the story moving.

Besides the element of the chase, there is also a love component to this story. While on the run, "the Needle" falls in love with a desparately loney English woman on an isolated island off the English coast. Soon she discovers that the mysterious stranger she has fallen for is a ruthless German spy with a secret agenda. What happens from there is an exciting climax that the reader is certain to remember for years to come.

I also recommend the movie starring Donald Sutherland which goes by the same title as the book.

Follet also tells the story of two of the important people following Faber. Godliman was a professor before the war started and throughout the search for Faber he remembers seeing him somewhere when he was younger. Bloggs is young and has just lost his wife in a bombing. He blames every Nazi for this and will doing anything to find and kill Faber.

Follet also tells of a young couple who are living their lives on a small cozy island with their son while all of this is going on. David, the husband, was going to fly a plane for the allies but got in a car accident and lost his legs. They both act happy when visitors come but Lucy, David's wife, knows there is something missing between them. The Needle ruthlessly kills anyone that gets in between him and the Fuehrer. He even kills people on his own side. That is the reason, though, that thousands of people are looking for him but no one can find him. Follett adds an interesting pattern at the ends of the chapters that The Needle kills someone end with the phrase "You saw my face."

You do find out he has a heart, though, at the end of his mission when he crashes on a lonely island. For once, he hesitates to kill someone.

This book is definitely a page-turner and has a very intense plot filled with adventure, suspense, and romance. It keeps you interested from the very first page to the very last.

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction
• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Canadian
• Subjects > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( F ) > Follett, Ken
• Subjects > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

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