Ken Follett has the aptitude for exhaustive research that gives his thrillers that extra edge of authenticity. A perfect
example is CODE TO ZERO his novel about the competititon between the Soviet Union and the U.S. to dominate the space race. Though it was a common joke that the race pitted Russia's captured former Nazi
scientists versus our former Nazi scientists, American scientists and engineers contributed hugely to the
success of the arly efforts.. With the Soviet Union already a fading memory--particularly to the young--a reading of this book recaptures the Cold War with startling freshness. The book jumps back and forth between the eve of WW II and the "present" of January 1958 on the eve of Jupiter's launch--America's answer to Sputnik. Though the book has all the attributes of a Hitchcockian thriller--the hero is wrongly accused of being a traitor while the real traitor appears to be succeeding--its true success is in the delineation of a group of characters both men and women whose attutudes and behavior are completely true to the time period depicted.