Never

The US destroys a terrorist base in Chad. Because it finds weapons from North Korea, it imposes sanctions on that country. Under economic pressure, North Korea retaliates. One by one, dominoes start to fall and what begins with one ‘small’ targeted military action ends up bringing China head to head with the USA. (Russia is noticeably absent from this story.)

There’s less ‘action’ in this than in most of the Ken Follett books I’ve read. Nor are the characters and their emotional dilemmas all that interesting. Certainly not as interesting as in the first three books of the Kingsbridge saga. The dialogue is even flatter and more expository than usual.

But what makes this such a gripping read is the relentless progression of events, with one small action leading to a slighter bigger retaliation, which leads in turn to a still bigger counter-retaliation. And with the book broken into sections that begin with DEFCON 5, it’s no great challenge to work out where the story is heading. It’s how that story develops, in a frighteningly believable manner, that makes it such a page-turner.

Just watching those dominoes fall.