The Key to Rebecca (Paperback)

by Ken Follett (Author) "THE LAST CAMEL COLLAPSED AT NOON..." (more)
Key Phrases: forged money, gear stick, deception plan, Alex Wolff, Major Vandam, Captain Newman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Set in North Africa, summer 1942, during Rommel's campaign against the British. This is the story of Alex Wolff, master spy, who treks across the Sahara and covertly enters the plot-ridden streets of wartime Cairo. And of Major Vandam, the British officer who is on Wolff's trail, sworn to destroy him. Wolff's mission is to steal British military plans and send them to Rommel, using a code whose key is buried in the pages of Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. As Rommel's troops come closer to victory, Vandam edges closer to Wolff and the crucial key. There are incredible chase scenes: a motorcycle hurtling through blacked-out Cairo; the flash of a knife, a gush of hot blood, and the fleeting shadow of an escaping assassin; a harrowing race against death and a speeding train. Follett builds tension and suspense to a screaming pitch as he follows the adversaries across the internal desert to a confrontation as startling as it is explosive. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author
Ken Follett was only twenty-seven when the wrote The Eye of the Needle, the award-winning novel which became an international bestseller and a distinguished film. Before that he had been a newspaper reporter and a publishing executive after studying philosophy at University College, London. He has since written eleven equally successful novels and the non-fiction bestseller On Wings of Engles. Ken Follett lives with his family in Chelsea, London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Signet; First Thus edition (September 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451110129
• ISBN-13: 978-0451110121
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #700,193 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Key To Rebecca = The Key To A Thrilling Suspenseful Read, July 18, 2003

By	Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Key to Rebecca (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Key To Rebecca" is one of Ken Follett's most exciting suspense-thrillers. This novel has all the essential ingredients for an "unputdownable" read.

The novel opens in 1942. World War II is raging, and German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel is having success after success with his Afrika Corps. The Nazis are planning to invade Cairo. The British are hunkering down, and doing everything possible to thwart the invasion. Rommel desperately needs access to British intelligence from their Headquarters in Cairo, in order to ensure his plan's outcome. So Rommel sends a master spy into British occupied Egypt. The spy, known only as the "Sphinx," covertly enters the country, and with a few mishaps, makes his way to Cairo. He has with him a radio, a code to transmit the information secretly, based on Daphne Du Maurier's book "Rebecca," and a piece of paper with the key to the code. Having spent much of his childhood in Cairo, the German-born spy, knows the city, language and many of its inhabitants well.

The Sphinx's task is not as easily accomplished as he once imagined. A British officer, Major Van Damme, with whom he shared past adversarial encounters, is soon on to him - and after him. Enter a beautiful Egyptian Jewess, Elene, who Van Damme wants to use as bait to capture the Nazi spy. Sparks fly between Van Damme and Elene from their first meeting, making it difficult for him to send her into danger. The cast also includes a famous, erotic, and somewhat depraved, belly dancer.

The main plot, although complex, is very realistic and reads smoothly. The various subplots are fascinating, and are often related to historical fact, such as the Egyptian Free Officers Movement's plot to subvert the British. This group of officers, headed by Gamal Abdul Nassar, and Anwar el-Sadat, plan to secretly side with the Germans, in order to rid Egypt of Britain's presence. They strategize to exchange their support - (thus Egypt's support), and throw in their cards with the Nazis, for postwar freedom for their country.

Ken Follett is a master at creating lifelike characters. All of the book's characters have their own past history, baggage and inner conflicts - and their own dreams and plans for the future. There is not a one-dimensional figure in the novel, even with the minor characters.

The novel moves at an incredible pace, ending in an unbelievable, and mortally dangerous chase through the desert. Hold on to your seats for this one. I highly recommend "The Key To Rebecca," and would have given it 4 1/2 stars, but that option is not open to me. I do like Follets "Pillars Of The Earth" and "Eye Of The Needle," more - which decided me on 4 stars. Still, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and well written book.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Follett's best, December 13, 2002

By	Mike C "motomike" (Richardson, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Key to Rebecca (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read almost all of Ken Follett's books and would rate this as his second best, behind Pillars of the Earth, and right up there with Eye of the Needle. It has the usual stock elements found in any thriller: an admirable hero, a despicable villain, a vulnerable but brave young girl, but infuses them with real humanity and builds to a crackling and suspenseful climax. As in other Follett books, he makes the conflict many-layered: The hero (Major Van Damme) wants to apprehend the villain (Alex Wolf) not only because it can have an effect on the progress of the second World War in Egypt, but because they have a past together, and because the girl he is falling in love with has been used as "bait" for Wolf. Shades of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious.

What I like about Follett's best work is that it really delivers the suspense and resolves the story in an incredibly satisfying way. Like many spy novels, there are contrived situations, but he "gets you to turn over the next page" (Ian Fleming's goal as author of the James Bond books) so eagerly that you just want to see how it ends. His female characters are far from cardboard as well: both of them are fully realized. And, best of all, he makes everyone vulnerable; he knows that we can identify with characters that have strengths and weaknesses, instead of the usual cast of robots exchanging gunfire from speeding cars.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intensity! on paper, March 27, 2001

By	Rebekah Sue Harris (West Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Key to Rebecca (Mass Market Paperback)

OK, so I bought it for the title. :)

I've been reading for over twenty-five years, and only discovered Ken Follett within the past three months!

His historical fiction is sharply detailed, but isn't overbearing or over my head. The characters in "The Key to Rebecca" are real enough that you love them, hate them, root for them, hope they get captured. They're clever -- perhaps more clever than the characters in "real" life upon whom they're based.

Buy it for the fabulous storytelling. Enjoy the history lesson that's interesting even to someone who didn't enjoy history in school. Wish that a sequel had been written.