Just Finished Reading Ken Follett's Code to Zero

I have just finished reading my first Ken Follett novel, this one titled Code to Zero.  The story, set in the year 1958 just as America is trying to enter the space race against the Soviet Union by launching its first rocket into space, begins in a familiar way (I think I've seen this scenario in old movies): a man wakes up one morning and discovers that he no longer remembers anything about himself and his job, family, or friends.  Also, there seem to be people watching and pursuing him...this can't be good!  Eventually, our hero, whose name is Charles "Luke" Lucas, discovers that he is a top scientist deeply involved in that impending rocket launch.  Apparently, he had discovered something serious about it and was on the way to Washington to talk about it with a friend in the CIA, Anthony Carroll, when his world went blank on him.  Now, as he tries to recover his own memory and orientation with the help of Billie Josephson, an old flame from his past who is an expert in memory, he discovers that people are out to kill him in order to prevent him from carrying something out that he has no idea of.  Sounds a bit to me like the old Gregory Peck movie thrillers Spellbound and Mirage!

Naturally, I won't give away the resolution to Code to Zero...but this novel does go into the Cold War tension and competition so preeminent in the 1950s between the USA and USSR.  It also examines the fledgling technology used in rocket science (some of the chapter-heading information Follett presents in this regard is a bit esoteric for me), as well as making the claim that our government, as Joseph McCarthy once claimed, was really, truly infested with pro-Soviet spies.  I enjoyed the mainly escapist ride through the book and felt that Follett accomplished his mission in writing it (at least what I think his mission probably was): tell a story in a suspenseful manner about an interesting topic while presenting compelling characters in a way that draws out the reader's empathy or ire.  Nothing fancy, but well written within its own limitations.  So with this book behind me, I'm prepared to seek out some more Follett material...