Eventually, he realizes that Normandy, not Calais, will be the site of the Allied troops’ attack on D-Day. He finds out that it is a sham, going to the alleged site of the base, discovering that it is fashioned to look real from planes flying overhead. The Nazi regime in Berlin orders Faber to investigate the veracity of FUSAG. One of them recognizes Faber in a photo and says that he is an army officer. They listen to his broadcast from his apartment in London, and learn that his code name is German for “The Needle.” They proceed to interrogate the other inhabitants of the apartment building. The intelligence think tank recruits an ex-cop, Bloggs, and a professor of history, Godliman, to find out where he is. Back at MI5, operatives have killed or converted every known German spy, except Faber. He and Lucy move to Storm Island on the Scottish coast. As the Battle of Britain wages on and is unable to defend his country, David turns into a malcontent. Their trip is cut short by a gruesome car crash after which David requires the amputation of both of his legs. Newly married, he and Lucy leave for their honeymoon. The story shifts to Royal Air Force pilot David. When she is dead, he finishes his radio call. Faber decides that he has no choice but to kill her.

When Faber goes to his lodging to relay what he has learned, his call is interrupted by his landlady, a lonely woman looking for company. He is posing as a railway depot associate in London, observing the passage of troops through the city’s infrastructure in order to approximate Allied military decisions. It introduces the antagonist Henry Faber, a notorious spy for Germany who uses a stiletto as his murder weapon. The success of this deception relied on the trust of every involved member of the FUSAG. The fictional FUSAG, or First United States Army Group, was created by the Allies it used props to direct the Germans’ attention to Calais and away from Normandy, the intended point of attack. A foreword provides a historical background, describing Operation Fortitude, a counterintelligence measure taken by the Allied Powers during World War II to misinform the Germans about the location of D-Day’s attack site. It also characterizes the British MI5’s struggle to capture the antagonist Henry Faber, who is aptly nicknamed “The Needle.” The novel uses real World War II-era events, places, and names, creating a blend of fact and fiction that passes as plausible in this era of unprecedented deception and international turmoil. Its title references the difficulty of the precise task of threading a needle. Prolific Welsh novelist Ken Follett’s psychological thriller novel Eye of the Needle (1978), seminal in the spy genre, which heavily utilizes suspense, became highly popular in the decade it was published.

The eye of the needle novel