The date is January 1958, and Explorer I stands impressively on the Cape Canaveral runway. Rocket scientist Luke Lucas lies passed out in the men's room of Union Station with no recollection of how he got there or who he is. Yet somehow, Luke's recovery of his memory is directly linked with to the fate of America's first satellite.
Or so goes the plot of spy and suspense mastermind Ken Follett ("Eye of the Needle") in his most recent work, "Code to Zero" that unfortunately does not measure up to his past genius.
The book's first shortcoming is the limited range of characters and their incestuous interconnectedness. Essentially the four important people are divided into two couples -- Luke and Elpseth Twomey and Anthony Carroll and Billie Josephine -- who all graduated from Harvard and then work for the CIA or top-secret biological or space research programs.
Follett does a decent job of laying the foundation of college camaraderie between Luke and Anthony. Follett subsequently vilifies Anthony for the ungrateful backstabber that he is, effectively personalizing the conflict to come between the two that crystallizes once Luke realizes the hard truth that his best college pal is out to neutralize him.
The book has a too narrow character and geographic focus. Almost all of the conflict pits the four against each other. In a snapshot, Anthony turns out to be in cahoots with Elpseth, who is married to Luke. Billie, Anthony's college sex kitten and later Luke's spring fling, then reunites with Luke to get back at Anthony and Elpseth.
All this factious infighting has the makings of a great Jerry Springer episode. Lesser characters merely become extensions of these four, having the unconvincing effect that the success of the entire United States space program lies squarely in the hands of these former college friends. Monopolizing the plot with four friendly-gone-murderous characters trivializes the deeper struggles in the space race that Follett could have worked into the plot.
Furthermore, unlike past novels, notably "Triple," the flavor of international drama is absent in "Code to Zero." Part of the compelling nature of Follett's books lies in his well-documented espionage, murder and intrigue of characters across Europe and the Middle East.
Even though the date is 1958 and the plot concerns the space race in the height of the Cold War, there is never a subplot that involves Moscow. Penetrating a top-secret laboratory in the Urals is excluded in favor of less stimulating scenes, such as a murder at the Huntsville airport. While the reader ultimately learns that some of the main characters are really Russian agents, the lack of a foreign subplot weakens the page-turning excitement that has come to define Follett's work.
Some of the suspense lost from excluding international actors could have been made up in the brief timeline of the book --three days. Each chapter is assigned a specific hour, which should have heightened the urgency of Luke piecing together his identity in time to realize he is the key to stopping the sabotage of Explorer I.
But Luke's remarkable progress in realizing who he is becomes a bit too remarkable. Throw in the challenge of his figuring out the conspiracy and then physically stopping the ill-fated launch of a satellite is a Herculean feat, which done in just three days is too much to digest properly. But alas, a man is only as good as the woman behind him, and Luke gets plenty of help from Billie.
In short, Follett pursues an interesting concept of intertwining the past of four close friends to the future of the space race. He develops Luke, Anthony and Billie well, but in the end falls disappointingly short of producing a satisfying suspenseful thriller that has become his hallmark.
The battle among the four characters fails to effectively represent to "the mighty struggle between the superpowers," as the book jacket states. Similar to the Soviet attempt to foil the launch of Explorer I, "Code to Zero" falls short.
