This was a good book that I found difficult to read. Mind you the book itself is not a difficult read at all, Follett plots well and writes good dialogue. It is about as good as anyone who enjoys fast-paced yet well-crafted spy books can anticipate. My difficulty in reading it came due to two reasons:

1. It is remarkably similar to Daniel Silva's "The Unlikely Spy" (although "Needle" came out 20 years earlier), a book I loved. The plots are close but Silva's characters are more developed and nuanced. I wish I had read this first instead so I wouldn't be comparing it incessantly to Silva's fine work.

2. This book received a lot of high ratings and an Edgar Award. Usually those in combination never fail to make for an entertaining read for myself. However, while I thought this was a very good book, I do not know if it is worthy of the acclaim it deserves. One just kind of floats from scene-to-scene and the pieces come together near the end rather than a solid narrative with a gradual buildup. While the last few pages were definitely suspenseful, the first 300 or so do not do that good of a job strengthening the story to carry it to the end.

Stripped of my biases, this is a really good read and I am being a little harsh on it. I think it's a tad over-praised but I am very glad I read it.