Sean Randall reviewed Code to Zero by Ken Follett
Review of 'Code to Zero' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
"We lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. Why do you think we tell the truth to priests, and shrinks, and total strangers we meet on trains? It's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think."
This was recommended to me as a good read and I'll admit the start, and indeed the whole idea, is a gripping one. Luke's race to solve his personal mystery could have been engaging and the space race is fascinating material with which to work. The trouble is, and I say this as a person who rarely tweaks to the TV whodoneit or your average mystery novel, the end is so obvious you might as well just not bother reading it. The implication is that Luke is a Soviet agent, which we of course know to be balderdash in pretty short order: the …
"We lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. Why do you think we tell the truth to priests, and shrinks, and total strangers we meet on trains? It's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think."
This was recommended to me as a good read and I'll admit the start, and indeed the whole idea, is a gripping one. Luke's race to solve his personal mystery could have been engaging and the space race is fascinating material with which to work. The trouble is, and I say this as a person who rarely tweaks to the TV whodoneit or your average mystery novel, the end is so obvious you might as well just not bother reading it. The implication is that Luke is a Soviet agent, which we of course know to be balderdash in pretty short order: the plain-as-day guilt trips of the actual saboteurs render any pretence of mystery null and void.
I did like the scene where Luke's driving through Georgetown and Nosy Rosie Sims is threatening to call the cops on him. The flashbacks to the nineteen forties could have worked well, but even there, the history came too early for the future effects to have any impact - the sex between Luke and billie laid the groundwork for the abortion, their first meeting pretty much trashed Elspeth and Luke's relationship, just to name a few instances.
I recently reread [b:The Bourne Identity|7869|The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1)|Robert Ludlum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165645608s/7869.jpg|859111], where repetition was used to great effect; mantra-like, for the amnesiac. Here, things are repeated (Pete's prostitution offence, Harry's contempt for women) with no appreciable gain - in fact, it smacked of sloppy editing to me, the book simply isn't long enough to warrant it.
To conclude, then; the story had potential. The dating is done wwell; the mores of the referenced periods and location especially as regards sex and race are particularly well executed, given that the novel was published in 2000. However, the sloppiness of the repetition and the sheer transparency of the plot ruined this for me somewhat, so much so that I wondered if it were a young adult book in places.
