I bought this book for a friend who had seen it reviewed on Oprah. I may have read some Ken Follett books many years ago but this one was not in his normal genre.My friend took this 900 plus page book everywhere. She said it was so terrific that all she wanted to do was read it. And with any book that you can't wait to get back to, she hated for it to end.She was hooked from the first sentence, she said, so on her behalf I recommend it highly.