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The Key to Rebecca

ken follett

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While Rommel's army bears down on Cairo, ruthless Nazi agent "The Sphinx" prowls the city's ancient streets to pave the way for an invasion, with no one to stand in his way but a luckless British officer and a Jewish girl.

0 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1980
Places
cairo, 

This edition

Format
0 pages, Hardcover
Published
December 12, 1994 by Buccaneer Books
ISBN
9781568492780
ASIN
1568492782
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

About the author

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ken follett

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Ken Follett is one of the world's most successful authors. Over 170 million copies of the 36 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 33 languages.

Born on June 5th, 1949 in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a tax inspector, Ken was educated at state schools and went on to graduate from University College, London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy – later to be made a Fellow of the College in 1995.

He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director.

Ken's first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978. A World War II thriller set in England, this book earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of Ken's most popular books.

In 1989, Ken's epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, The Pillars of the Earth, was published. It reached number one on best-seller lists everywhere and was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010. World Without End, the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, proved equally popular when it was published in 2007.

Ken's new book, The Evening and the Morning, will be published in September 2020. It is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth and is set around the year 1,000, when Kingsbridge was an Anglo-Saxon settlement threatened by Viking invaders.

Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He was chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and businesses. He is also active in many Stevenage charities and is President of the Stevenage Community Trust and Patron of Home-Start Hertfordshire.

Ken, who loves music almost as much as he loves books, is an enthusiastic bass guitar player. He lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with his wife Barbara, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Stevenage. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
35(35%)
4 stars
34(34%)
3 stars
30(30%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
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99 reviews All reviews
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dakenzi97
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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(review in English below)

Para mim foi uma desilusão (na verdade, é mais um 2,5 do que um 3).

Nunca me senti envolvida na história, não gostei particularmente dos personagens nem apreciei a escrita.
Lê-se bem, mas se calhar a espionagem não é para mim...

This was a big let down for me (it's more like a 2.5, actually).

I never felt involved in the story, I didn't particularly like the characters or the writing.

It reads OK, maybe I'm just not into spy novels...
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Mrr2003r
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A good WWII spy novel set in Cairo. British major must track down a german spy who is assisting Rommel. Lots of suspense, quite a bit of sex, and of course, a lot of nasty nazis. Recommended.
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PwrzTinkering
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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È stato il primo libro di Follett che io abbia mai letto e, al tempo, fu amore a prima vista. Per quanto crescendo (e soprattutto rileggendolo) abbia perso la sua capacità di stupirmi, resta un libro che porto nel cuore. Intrattiene bene, scorre perfettamente, tiene abbastanza alta la tensione inserendo nella narrazione capitoli prettamente militari di cui in realtà faremmo a meno. I personaggi fanno sognare di essere lì con loro, per le strade del Cairo o nel deserto, tra danzatrici del ventre, spie tedesche e ufficiali seriosi in cerca, forse, di qualcuno che faccia loro tornare il sorriso.
Adorato, di nuovo. Una bella e leggera lettura che ho volentieri inserito in un periodo di letture molto più pesanti.
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Adam_________
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Pathetic. I Quit reading it even before completing 100 pages. It had a good start but then lengthy, unnecessary lengthy descriptions of situations and scenes, that too which occasionally fit to the context and story, ruined this book in further pages.

One good thing that happened to me from this book is that it made me realise that if such a creation can become a best seller then may be even I can hit a jackpot by writing one of such kinds.

Altogether, total disappointment and waste of time.
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sparkle1princess
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Las primeras cien páginas de este libro me fascinaron. Por la similitud en la trama, me volvió a llevar a las sensaciones de cuando leí La isla de las tormentas y además desarollado en un contexto tan vibrante y novedoso para mi como El Cairo, cuyo ambiente está muy bien descrito al inicio. Probablemente por esas altas expectativas, la magia inicial se me fue diluyendo a medida que transcurría la historia. Aun así, a mí es que me gustan este tipo de historias, así que, aunque esté lejos de ser mi libro favorito, me sigue pareciendo de lo más interesante.
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SafeguardSanakan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Rebecca Comes to War


We all know how WWII invaded literature. The theme has been used and abused inspiring all sorts of stories.

Since what goes around is expected to come around, it's definitely not shocking to find an event where the opposite works, e.g. running into a WWII episode where literature plays some sort of role:

While doing research for the "Eye of the needle", Ken Follet found a parallel story that involved a german spy, a sexy belly dancer and the famous "Rebecca" from Daphne du Maurier. This peculiar and not so Holly Trinity, gave birth to a completely different Rebecca...

The Key to Rebecca is not Ken Follet at his best, but it's Ken Follet at his almost best!
Nothing left to say except that it's highly recommendable! Ken Follet always provides knowledge and entertainment. What else could we demand!?...
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Mymyna
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book was very easy to put down until the last 80 pages when the action finally took place. I can handle some racy stuff in books, but there are a couple sentences I really wish I hadn't read that are in this book. The sex that is talked about is way too perverted for me. There wasn't a lot of it and I did my best to skim over it while not missing out on the plot, but I really couldn't see the point of most of it. I read another goodreads' member's review of this book before I started it that said it seemed like the author just threw salacious stuff in as an afterthought with no relevance to the story - I have to agree for the most part.
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Plucaptain
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Another excellent book, making the reader spin through all the action and strategy that evolves side by side with passion, sensuousness and a lot of historical background!

Maria Carmo,

Lisbon 23 August 2016.
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