Paper Money

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Quick, easy read, lacks depth of his later works - Rated
A very quick easy page turner (286 pages but I easily read it within a single day). It lacks the depth of his later works, but as he says in the introduction to the 1987 edition, this is probably the best of his early less successful novels; for me, it's better than the Modigliani Scandal, anyway.

A fast moving 24hrs worth of entwined plots in 70's London - Rated
One of Follett's early novellas which could do without the largely apologetic preface from the great man. I enjoyed it as the pace of the story and the sheer amount of sub-plots would today be glorified and acclaimed if filmed and directed by a pseudo Guy Ritchie. Easy read - enjoy it for what it is and what became of the author subsequently.

Perfect for a short holiday trip - Rated
Having trouble finding enlish literature in o.v. in latinamerica "Paper Money" was the first book of Ken Follet as well as the first one in spanish I read. Putting aside differences that might arise through translating it I found it to be a marvelos novel, concentrating the whole plot taking place in only one day, divided into hours. In his foreword Follet says he considers this book as "his best without success" he ever wrote, stating as well that this might be because of the numerous caracters he uses in a quite complex story. For me it turned out to be a real "pageturner" and I think you should read it right this way. Beeing rather short you can get trough it in just a couple of days. My advice: Worth reading one of Follets very first works published as far back as 1976.

A fairly quick read with a complex plot - Rated
Ken Follett is one of my favourite authors - his epic "Pillars of the Earth" is probably the one work of fiction I enjoyed the most.

This book is a rather different kind of book in several ways - the story is considerably shorter, and thus it won't take you long to read it. There is also less of the lush descriptive detail that makes some of his other books so immersive. Despite this, there is still a very intricate plot, involving many quirky characters with outrageous backgrounds, and there is a sense of dry humour sprinkled throughout.

I did enjoy the book, but I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I did some of his others. I found myself getting characters mixed up, and several times I had to turn back to an earlier page to try and find that missed detail.

It seems appropriate, then, that the author himself should have said in his foreword, "Clever plots satisfy authors more than readers." As a writer I would have been proud of writing "Paper Money", but admittedly it's not one of the first books I would pick up on a cold winter evening by the fireplace.