After finishing Follett's novel, its defined genre of "thriller" seemed laughable to me. Maybe the narrative tropes wouldn't have seemed so cliche and tired in 1979, but today, after decades of revitalized James Bond films, Homeland, Deutschland 83 and many others, there is nothing surprising or exciting about Eye of the Needle. I saw every single plot twist coming a mile away and that was unfortunate, because the distance from one "action" scene to the next seemed interminable. It's not a hard read, but it's not worth the time, either.

Read Harder 2016: Book from the 1970s