339 pages
English language
Published Dec. 13, 2005 by Dark Alley.
One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart.
not bad as those mass-produced thrillers go; i'll give one star less for the unexpected and rather awkwardly cringy transformation from a spy thriller into your typical a-stranger-menaces-to-murder-a-family thriller with porn elements… but hey, the author was probably bored himself and had to experiment, lol.
A reread after 22 years. Palate cleanser before jumping into Follett’s historical fiction.
This is my first Ken Follett book (much to the disappointment of my wife) but I wanted to tackle something small before attempting on of his epics. Eye of the Needle tells the story of a German master spy ‘The Needle’ and his attempt to uncover the plans of the English army during World War 2 (a few weeks before D-Day). This book was a little light on the espionage and too much focused on the generic thriller formula. I also felt the feeling of World War 2 was missed; this book could have been a lot darker and grittier without losing anything in the story. But then again I’m just a sucker for darker books, so when it's a WWII novel is a little on the light side, I tend to get disappointed. I love the antagonist ‘The Needle’ and kind of wished he was the protagonist, I think …
This is my first Ken Follett book (much to the disappointment of my wife) but I wanted to tackle something small before attempting on of his epics. Eye of the Needle tells the story of a German master spy ‘The Needle’ and his attempt to uncover the plans of the English army during World War 2 (a few weeks before D-Day). This book was a little light on the espionage and too much focused on the generic thriller formula. I also felt the feeling of World War 2 was missed; this book could have been a lot darker and grittier without losing anything in the story. But then again I’m just a sucker for darker books, so when it's a WWII novel is a little on the light side, I tend to get disappointed. I love the antagonist ‘The Needle’ and kind of wished he was the protagonist, I think the character could have made a decent book series. I guess people don’t want the Germans to win the war. There are some amusing scenes but all in all it was like reading a Jason Borne style novel set in World War 2; while exciting it really could have been a lot better.
This is a fantastic page-turner, perfect for the beach! (Don't bother with the movie, though).
