FAN-tastic. Admittedly, I don't like history, let alone war history, but Eye of the Needle was my first book by Follett, and it was soooooo good. I’ve easily read this book 3-4 times, and I’ve recommended it plenty more. With characters you love and love to hate all woven into carefully chosen elements of history, he brings the history to life. Perhaps my history teachers should have used this technique in school… by making history relevant, even to fictional characters, because then ‘history’ becomes present. It becomes now. Follett is a master at layering fiction over nonfiction. This is an ideal first book.

The audiobook was very well done.

such a good read!

Gripping spy novel. Couldn't put it down.

An early career novel for Follett, was drawn to read it after taking his BBC master class, which was excellent. And the novel? Excellent too, in my view. Nearly perfect in terms of pace and readability I'd say, and it manages to be tense and propulsive while as the same time maintaining Follett's what I would call or "sunny" worldview. And he creates what I consider to be a masterful degree of erotic tension in the scenes on the remote island between the secretive spy and the young Englishwoman disappointed in her marriage. A great choice, in other words, if you're looking for a light and entertaining read. And for fiction writers, it's a most enjoyable masterclass of pacing and narrative drive.

A good thriller.

I didn't know I liked historical fiction until I started reading Ken Follett.

I hoped this book was primarily about the Ghost Army - nope. Still, it was a good tale with a fairly good plot.