Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The struggle to stop Rommel in the desert.
Comment: Germany has managed to sneak a spy into Cairo during the desparate struggle between the British and Rommel's Afrika Corps. Alex Wolff, the spy, is ruthless and determined to help the Germans capture Egypt. Using contacts from his depraved life in Cairo, he sets out to steal secrets from an unwitting British officer, providing Rommel with all the tools he needs to defeat the British.
Standing in his way is Major Vandam, a British Intelligence Officer, widower and father, and Elena, a beautiful young Jew he recruits to try and capture the spy. The trap is set, but their plans are complicated by the conflicting alegiences of the Egyption officials, and Elena finds herself trapped by Wolff and his depraved partner, and must somehow both survive and help Vandam stop the spy and provide the key to stopping Rommel.
Set against the chaos of wartime Cairo, the suspense builds as Wolff and Vandam dance around each other, each trying to gain an advantage. The story moves at a brisk pace, and full of interesting twists. However, there is a fair bit of moderately graphic, mature content, so this book might not be appropriate for less mature readers (parental guidance is strongly suggested).
Customer Rating: Summary: A Strategically Shaved Belly Dancer, Desert Thieves, Secret Agents, A Camel-Abusing Nazi, And A Living Dead Jewish Girl
Comment: My title was less about offending purists and more about catching the eye with a little joke: plus it's technically all true. The fact is The Key To Rebecca is one heckuva thrilling jaunt. Set in occupied Egypt during the early part of World War Two and telling the fictionalized background story of how Rommel's best spy infiltrated Cairo and got his hands on invaluable military information the British were trying desperately to conceal, Ken Follett's second published novel has something for everyone: including, may I add, fans of strategically shaved belly dancers. By using as his code book something as innocuous as Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier best-selling novel of Cornwall, a maverick German spy sends theoretically unbreakable messages back to his comrades on the front lines, giving the Afrika Korps a seemingly inexplicable advantage over its beleaguered foes. Opposing this ruthless spy is a British officer tormented by his own personal demons, someone far less interesting than the spy he hunts, but more sympathetically comprehensible in his fallibility. Unlike most novels of this genre The Key To Rebecca, while energetic and quick moving, offers few cliffhangers or plot twists and instead relies on being driven by some of the most memorably sketched characters in fiction who stalk one another in a time and place that holds the balance of the world itself.
