Customer Reviews

The Key to Rebecca

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"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.

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.

Ken Follett is a very good tale-spinner and The Key to Rebecca has a promising premise.

The setting is 1942 Egypt--Cairo is threatened by Rommel's advancing army. German-born and Arab-raised, Alex Wolff is the perfect Nazi spy--calculating and ruthless. Almost perfect--Wolff has an eye for pretty girls. Wolff's partner is Sonja el-Aram, a sensuous belly-dancer with a depraved mind--perfect for Wolff. Major William Vandam, a straight-laced British Intelligence officer who has seen better days, is hot on Wolff's trail. To set the trap, he recruits Elene Fontana, a beautiful Jewish runaway with nothing to lose. Together Vandam and Elene must stop Wolff at any cost!

The action is heart-pounding (typical Follett), the locations are beautifully described, and the key relationships are well-developed. My only two complaints are the brevity with which everything is resolved at the end and the overly graphic descriptions of some twisted sexual encounters. Please, leave some of that to the imagination next time!

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.

The book is really good....The book's event are all in Egypt and i must tell u that as an i Egyptian I was astonished at how the author had a very good background of egypt... all it's streets and how the egyptians felt about the war..... never read such a good book which is well studied, not even by egypian authors.....WELL DONE FOLLETT!!!!

Ken Follett's The Key to Rebecca is a classic WWII thriller pitting the Nazi super-spy Alexander Wolff against a renegade forlorn Englishman Vandamm. It is set in the early days of the war in colonial Egypt. Follett is doing us a service here as Americans are generally unaware of the North African phase of the war, since our major involvement really came later. Few rememember that the French in North Africa, after the fall of France, fought American and especially British forces, but let's leave that story for another day.

In 1942, Egypt was a British colony, with strong nationalist forces chafing under the control of the Turkish king, installed by the British. Egyptian nationalists, led by Sadat and Nasser, saw little difference between British and German colonial rule, and typically aided the Germans in this theatre. Sadat is a minor character in Follett's book.

Into this quagmire appear Alexander Wolff, born of German mother and Egyptian father, trained by the Germans in the latest espionage techniques; and Major Vandamm, a minor British military intellligence official burdened with personal grief and moronic superiors. Wolff successfully establishes a direct link into British intelligence by his clever manipulation of a belly dancer and another British officer. With this information, Rommel is beginning to rout the British.

Fortunately for us Anglos, Vandamm devises a honey trap to snare the Nazi. His instrument is a young Jewish girl who is terrified at the prospect of Nazis in Cairo.

All in all, a well crafted thriller. Follett uses the historical context and byzantine relationships of the colonial era to great advantage. It is not a great work, as some parts are a bit formulaic and easy to predict, but read it for the history and the adventure.

This is the 5th Ken Follett Book I've read in a row. Pillars of the Earth was the first and my favorite. This, while not as great as Pillars, is still a very entertaining read.

One thing I enjoy about his books is how he can use real events in history and real places in the world and weave them into his stories. The history doesn't overpower the underlying story though. At times you can think that you're reading an actual account of someone who was there, going through what the characters go through.

With very deep and true to life characters and a villain you love to hate, you can't go wrong. A great book for Follett fans and those who aren't familiar with his work alike!

This was the third book i read of Folletts, and i was really happy and entertained with the "suspence" he delivers.

I really only have one word to say that describes how i felt throughout the book:

WOW

It was a heart-pounding-don't-know-whats-gonna-happen-next-must-close-eyes-can't-watch-thriller!

All five of the stars i give this book are deserved in the books Entertainment value. It is truly ONE ENTERTAINING BOOK.

And a last point: The book has no "prolonged" slow areas. He slows down like a roller coaster does just to calm you down moments before whisping you through another loop.

I would call this "great".

Five Stars

I have become an avid fan of anything Ken Follet writes because I never know where his words will take me in time and space. I am not a military enthusiast by any means, but this novel set during WWII captured all my attention. Follett's Character development is second to none; it is very easy to visualize each person in the novel, especially Alex.

There are not many fiction books that discribe this particular set of battle in the second World War, so besides the fun of reading a Follett book, you also learn something about the war in Africa. Follett has done a good job in picturing the struggle between a british army captain and a ruthless Nazi-spy, called "the Sphinx" in the streets of Cairo and through the desertic egyptian country. Also, the sensuality is a constant and present part of the plot, involving a beautiful young jewish girl working to defeat her tough past and to guarantee a safe future for her and her people. Second best of Follett, only behind "Pillars of the earth".