by Ken Follett
The villain is so brilliant and depraved and the suspense so magnified that a reader's pulse seems to race during the last 50 or so pages of this spy thriller. Follett returns to the opening device of his Eye of the Needle: A sinister German agent kills an innocent victim. The setting in this World War II novel is Egypt and the Sahara. The spy works for Field Marshal Rommel in Cairo, where the hero, a British intelligence officer, is also stationed. In addition to his skillful pacing, Follett is a master at making characters both vivid and amusing. There is a belly dancer who hates the British, and a young revolutionary Egyptian named Sadat. The heroine is a lovely Egyptian Jew. The consistently entertaining details of wartime Cairo, with its corruption and perilous underground life, splash out. Indeed, Follett provides so many small delights as he spins his yarn that his 13th novel deserves to be the runaway hit of the season. (Morrow, $12.95)
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