This is brilliant. The first novel was good and, looking back, I see how much it set the scene for this one. Now, we are intimately familiar with our people and this book really ups the bar.

Each "part" holds a strand of action as the war progresses, and they're all very good reading indeed.

In there's A U-boat will be waiting, Karl Moehe is perhaps underrecognised as the most fastidious escaped prisoner ever to hit England's shores: his survival technique was great reading and exploits most amusing, only topped by the interrogation technique of Geoffrey Cape.

The Shackled Men chronicles the PoW's passive resistance to an illegal handcuffing (or shackling, rather, given that the British seem to get the two confused). It's quite an interesting counterpoint here because clearly the British soldiers on the scene don't want to cuff their prisoners and the web of phone calls, requisition forms and general nonsense that goes on is highly entertaining indeed.

I won't go into both the remaining parts in detail, though they were fun too, especially the latter. The ending of the book was very nicely done, Follett's very good at emotional rides and the sweep from satisfaction of a brilliantly executed plan to deepest disparagement is swift and decisive.

“A proud man with an unbreakable spirit,” said Fleming. “He’s never given up fighting his own war. Nothing could make him give up. Yet I did it tonight...”

I was perhaps a little hasty judging the first volume only 4, but it did have to set things up. Though there were little issues here (repetition of information from the first book being one), it didn't detract very much because the whole thing was just incredibly, brilliantly fun.