The Eye of the Needle

After tucking in to a book culled from the shelves of George Sr, I ploughed through one from those of George Jr, to with, Ken Follett's espionage classic The Eye of the Needle. Somehow I had never read it.

It was solid, if a little easy, in the sense that the MI5 crew on the tail of master German spy "Die Nadel" track him a little too easily, basically with some industry and ingenuity but not a whole ton of struggle. They just pretty quickly happen onto his path and never really lose it.

Which allows Follett to move the book along to a conclusion in 320 scant pages, in the edition I was reading. Really I just ploughed right through it.

So Follett eschews the classic device of leading the investigating team after a large series of red herrings, the better to describe a broader range of society. The plot does follow Die Nadel across a decent-size chunk of Great Britain, allowing fot the presentation of a number of character "types," so all is not lost on that front. All in all, a good if not great book with enough texture, variety and character development to be worth it. I won't spoil it for you by saying whether the good guys win.