Eye of the Needle Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by Welsh author Ken Follett . It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island . This novel was Follett ' s first successful , bestselling effort as a novelist , and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America . The title is an allusion to the " eye of a needle " aphorism . The book was made into a motion picture in 1981 , starring Donald Sutherland , with a screenplay adapted by Stanley Mann and directed by Richard Marquand . Plot Summary . Operation Fortitude was an Allied counter - intelligence operation run during World War II . Its goal was to convince the German military that D - Day landings were to occur at Calais and not Normandy . As a part of Fortitude the fictitious First United States Army Group ( FUSAG ) was created . FUSAG used fake tanks , buildings and radio traffic to create an illusion of an army being formed to land at Calais . In 1940 Henry Faber is a German spy , called ' die Nadel ' ( ' The Needle ' ) for the use of a stiletto as his trademark weapon , working at a London railway depot , collecting information on troop movements . Faber is halfway through radioing this information to Berlin when his landlady stumbles into his room hoping for intimacy . Faber fears that Mrs . Garden will eventually realize that he was using a transmitter and that he is a spy , so he kills her with his stiletto , then resumes his transmission . The book then introduces David , a trainee RAF pilot , and his bride Lucy . On their honeymoon David and Lucy are involved in a car crash . David loses the use of both his legs . Unable to fly in the Battle of Britain David grows embittered as he and Lucy retire to the isolated Storm Island off the coast of Scotland . Meanwhile British Intelligence has executed or recruited all German spies . Faber is the only successful one still at large . A history professor , Godliman , and a widowed ex - policeman , Bloggs , are employed by MI5 to catch him . They start with the interrupted broadcast and his codename Die Nadel . They connect the landlady ’ s murder to Faber by him having used his ‘ needle ’ during the transmission . They then interview Faber ’ s fellow tenants from 1940 . One identifies Faber from a photo of him as a young army officer . Faber is told by Berlin to investigate whether the FUSAG is real or not . Faber discovers the army is a fake . He takes photos of an army base constructed only to look real from the air . Faber realizes that Normandy is where D - Day is going to occur . Several soldiers try to arrest Faber , but he kills them with his stiletto . He then heads to Aberdeen , Scotland , where a U - boat will take him and his photos back to Germany . Godliman and Bloggs realize what Faber is trying to achieve . There follows a long chase across Northern England and Scotland with both Hitler and Churchill getting personally involved . Faber escapes many times but his repeated killings allow MI5 to track him to Aberdeen . Exhausted Faber finally sets out on a small trawler to meet the U - boat . Caught by a fierce storm , he is shipwrecked on Storm Island . He collapses in front of the lonely house where David and Lucy live . He is tended to by Lucy . Stuck in a loveless marriage to the crippled David she begins a physical relationship with Faber . David soon discovers both Lucy ' s infidelity and Faber ’ s FUSAG photos . David then tries to kill Faber . After a struggle Faber kills David by rolling him and his Jeep off a cliff . Faber tells Lucy it was another accident . However , she discovers her husband ' s body and realizes the truth . Faber realizes he may be caught so he decides to radio the information about FUSAG directly to Germany . Lucy stops him by short - circuiting the electricity in the cottage . By the logic which guided his actions throughout his career , Faber should have killed Lucy - but he finds himself unable to do so , being deeply in love with her to the detriment of his mission and of simple self - preservation . Unable to send a radio message , Faber attempts to descend the cliff and swim to the waiting U - boat . Lucy throws a rock at him , striking him and causing him to lose his balance and fall to his death . The RAF then appears and drives the U - boat away . A fictitious radio message is sent over Faber ' s call code , persuading the Germans that the invasion is targeting Calais . Bloggs comforts the widowed Lucy , eventually marrying her . Film reference . In the film " The Iron Lady " is a scene in which the retired Margaret Thatcher is shown reading " Eye of the Needle " while her husband Denis Thatcher remarks " In the end she kills him , you know . "