Taking place during the cold war, it describes an effort to frustArate the U.S. effort to place a satellite in space and so to compete with the Russians who had already launched Sputnik and sent Laika, a dog, into space.

The most interesting twist was the use of amnesia to set the stage and introduce us to both the protagonist and his main antagonist. The characters were drawn fairly well, although more could have been done with their motivations.

The plot is clever and has a few twists that were unexpected but also a few that could be seen from afar. The ending is a little too neat for a novel. It was more suitable for a nail biter of a movie.

As usual, Follett does a good job of describing the era he is writing about, particularly the foibles of the characters. Having been born in the 1930's, I was struck with how accurate his take on people's attitudes in the 40s and 50s, toward sex, marriage, family, and social status was.

All in all, this was a nice piece of mind candy and fun to spend two or three days with.