Eye of the Needle

For other uses, see Eye of the Needle (disambiguation).

1st edition

Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The title is an allusion to the "eye of a needle" aphorism.

The book was made into a motion picture in 1981 with a screenplay adapted by Stanley Mann and directed by Richard Marquand.

Plot introduction

Operation Fortitude was an Allied counter-intelligence operation run during World War II. Its goal was to convince the German military that D-Day landings were to occur at Calais and not Normandy. As a part of Fortitude the fictitious First United States Army Group (FUSAG) was created. FUSAG used fake tanks, buildings and radio traffic to create an illusion of an army being formed to land at Calais.

In 1940 Henry Faber is a German spy working at a London railway depot, collecting information on troop movements. Faber is halfway through radioing this information to Berlin when his landlady stumbles into his room hoping for intimacy. Faber fears that Mrs. Garden will eventually realize that he was using a transmitter and that he is a spy. Faber kills her with his stiletto. He then resumes his transmission. His repeated use of this stiletto leads to his nickname 'Die Nadel' ('The Needle'). The book then introduces David, a trainee RAF pilot, and his bride Lucy. On their honeymoon David and Lucy are involved in a car crash. David loses the use of both his legs. Unable to fly in the Battle of Britain David grows embittered as he and Lucy retire to the isolated Storm Island off the coast of Scotland.

Meanwhile British Intelligence has executed or recruited all German spies. Faber is the only successful one still at large. A history professor, Godliman, and a widowed ex-policeman, Bloggs, are employed by MI5 to catch him. They start with the interrupted broadcast and his codename Die Nadel. They connect the landlady’s murder to Faber by him having used his ‘needle’ during the transmission. They then interview Faber’s fellow tenants from 1940. One identifies Faber from a photo of him as a young army officer.

Faber is told by Berlin to investigate whether the FUSAG is real or not. Faber discovers the army is a fake. He takes photos of an army base constructed only to look real from the air. Faber realizes that Normandy is where D-Day is going to occur. Several soldiers try to arrest Faber, but he kills them with his stiletto. He then heads to Aberdeen, Scotland, where a U-Boat will take him and his photos back to Germany. Godliman and Bloggs track Faber by the murdered soldiers. MI5 then realizes what Faber is trying to achieve. There follows a long chase across Northern England and Scotland with both Hitler and Churchill getting personally involved. Faber escapes many times but his repeated killings allow MI5 to track him to Aberdeen.

Exhausted Faber finally sets out on a small trawler to meet the U-Boat. Unused to the open sea he gets shipwrecked on Storm Island. He collapses in front of the lonely house where David and Lucy live. He is tended to by Lucy. Stuck in a loveless marriage to the crippled David she begins a physical relationship with Faber. David soon discovers both Lucy's infidelity and Faber’s FUSAG photos. David can’t decide what angers him more so he tries to kill Faber. After a struggle Faber kills David by rolling him and his Jeep off a cliff. Faber tells Lucy it was another accident.

Faber realizes he may be caught so he decides to radio the information about FUSAG directly to the U-Boat. Lucy, who doesn’t believe his story, stops him by sabotaging the radio. Faber discovers this but having fallen in love with Lucy he can’t kill her. As Faber heads down the cliff to the waiting U-Boat Lucy throws a rock at him, striking Faber who loses his balance and falls to his death. The RAF then appears sinking the U-Boat. Bloggs later comforts the widowed Lucy, eventually marrying her and having children.

List of characters

• Henry Faber - "Die Nadel", German spy
• David Rose - young R.A.F. fighter pilot
• Lucy Rose - David Rose's wife
• Billy Parkin - young Army soldier who identified Faber
• Percival Godliman - MI5 agent
• Frederick Bloggs - MI5 agent

Film reference

The film The Iron Lady has a scene in which the retired Margaret Thatcher is shown reading "Eye of the Needle" while her husband Denis Thatcher remarks "In the end she kills him, you know".

See also

• Operation Fortitude
• First United States Army Group (fictional)

External links

• Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle - official site
• Ken Follett discusses Eye of the Needle on the BBC World Book Club