Egypt. World War II. Nazi spy. Thrilling chase. X-rated sex. Alfred Hitchcock could have had fun with it.

I rate this a 3+. The second half of the book was much better than the first half, where there was too many boring chapters. The story is about a German spy in Cairo, who with his lustful woman friend are doing great damage to the English army who are fighting the Germans in Egypt. The only hope is with a down on his luck English officer and his Jewish girlfriend.

This was a good thriller that kept me turning the pages. It is pretty cliched - good guy, bad guy, a beautiful heroine, etc but ideal reading if you are just looking to be entertained. I enjoyed it a lot.

Trepidante thriller de espionaje en plena II Guerra Mundial en el Egipto ocupado por los británicos, pero rodeado por las fuerzas alemanas comandadas por Rommel. Lucha encarnizada entre un espía alemán y el servicio secreto británico en El Cairo, con la presencia de mujeres fatales, oficiales engañados, mensajes cifrados de radio... En fin, todo un clásico de espías. Muy entretenido. El final, y ya voy a tener que hacérmelo mirar, porque siempre me pasa en este tipo de lecturas, aunque es el lógico y esperado, no queda a la altura del resto.
De todos modos, muy recomendable, yo lo he disfrutado.

I started loving Ken Follet's thriller series starting with Eye of the Needle, especially his endings which are rather like Hitchcock movies with their drawn out suspense, usually involving only two or three people. In this book too, the final sequence with the hostages on a train was outstanding, and that is the only thing I remember about the book - apart from the one-time pad code using Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

I remember, though, that this book was not as captivating as Eye of the Needle or Triple.

(#2 in a stack of "read and throw away" paperbacks while back in Taiwan)

Didn't remember having read this before, but I had a strong sense of déjà lu as I got into it, so apparently I did at some point back in the 80's.

Exciting story, very well-written, and with a strong sense of time and place - Follett obviously did his homework. While the ending was never in doubt, Follett did a good job balancing mystery and history, and now I'll do some Wiki-work to find out just how close to the facts he stayed in the story of the Afrika Corps' assault on Egypt.

This was apparently filmed as a TV movie in 1985, with Cliff Robertson and David Soul (as well as a bizarrely-cast Robert Culp as Erwin Rommel). Considering the amount of sex in the book, this adaptation was probably a disappointment on a whole lot of levels.

I haven't read a lot of Follett, but recall at least Eye of the Needle and Lie Down With Lions - the latter of which I particularly enjoyed at the time, but in historical hindsight is now kind of depressing, (Americans helping real-life Afghan Muj leader Ahmad Shah Masood fight the evil Soviets, back when both the Cold War and the War on Terror were still largely black and white). I have zero interest in his monster "Kingsbridge" or "Century" trilogies, but may look for more of his stuff from the 80's and 90's.

Another terrific spy thriller from the wonderful Follett. I learned a lot about the WWII battles in Egypt and how close the Allies came to losing territory there. Great complex characters and nonstop action. This was a delight to read.

My second read for ken Follet. This time the novel takes place in my country during WW2. The incidents are based on some true events though the majority are fictional for thriller purpose. It's based on the failed German operation Condor. Alex Wolff is the Abwehr spy Eppler, Sonja is the famous belly dancer Hekmat Fahmy. Rommel and Sadat appear here, though their appearance here is not historically precise.
Follet is fond of details and that's why i am interested in reading as much as i can of his work. Though it's obvious he made a remarkable effort in this novel trying to draw a picture for Cairo in the 40s, and some of his remarks were really smart, yet it's also obvious that his perspective to Egypt and Egyptians was rather colonial, which resulted many illogical behaviors and reactions in this story.

Sometimes you need to go back and see which "oldies" you missed. Actually, my reason for reading "The Key to Rebecca" was more pedestrian: the bookstore aisles were blocked due to some activity in the bookstore; The "F" shelf in the mystery section was the only place I could get to. And I'm glad! I bought the book, went home, and curled up in bed. The first line sucked me in: "The last camel collapsed at noon." I wish I could write like that: six words and I know that the setting is the middle east, that it's almost certainly in the desert (why else talk about a camel collapsing?), that a journey is involved, and that somebody is in trouble. Six words! Something else that Follett masters in this World War II era novel is the manipulation of the reader's sense of alliance and empathy as the author switches back and forth between two major characters. At first your sympathies are with one, but somewhere along the way, you start wondering if you've chosen the right character, and by the end . . . Read it if you haven't, and you'll see!

“Ishmael was looking at him through narrowed eyes. “This is very important to you, this box.”
“It’s important to the world.”

Ishmael said: “The sun rises, and the sun sets. Sometimes it rains. We live, then we die.” He shrugged.

He would never understand, Wolff thought; but others would.”

The first few pages were fantastic. And then it just became a horrible book. Spoilers ahead. It relies heavily on stereotypes--the inscrutable Arabs, the highly sexualized "Oriental" women, the frigid, repressed British women... and so on. The writing is stiff and overly expository. The character emotional development happens in spurts and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Which really just leaves plot. The plot, over all, is the one good thing about this book. However, a few key turns happen in a way that's unbelievable. For instance, no matter how lustful, maniacal, twisted, egotistical Alex (the antagonist) is, I can't believe he'd take lust over sending information to the Germans that would win the war.

Bought this on a cheap deal for my Kindle for holiday reading. I haven't read any of his other books, so can't compare with them, but I did find it interesting as it was about an area and time I'm not much acquainted with. Plot was quite gripping and the characters interesting.