Eye of the Needle

Britain, 1940. A German agent known as Die Nadel, "The Needle", after the stiletto he prefers as a weapon, lives and works unnoticed in the country. His real name is Henry Faber, and he has found out something that could alter the course of the war.

Faber is the only man placed to get that knowledge back to Berlin. Closing in on him are two members of British intelligence: a history professor recruited into MI5 and a policeman lent to the service.

His flight leads to Storm Island, a small, wind-battered rock off the coast of Scotland. Lucy Rose lives there, a young wife whose marriage the war has put under strain, and Faber meets her.

The novel is a wartime spy thriller that sets a hunted professional killer against the people hunting him. The question it turns on is whether Faber can cross the water with his secret before the net around him tightens.

The book was first published in Britain in 1978 as Storm Island and won the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel. A 1981 film adaptation starred Donald Sutherland.