Ken Follett - Lie Down With Lions

Review by Showhost
The story starts in Paris, 1981, but is based mainly in Afghanistan. The main characters are Jane Ellis & Jean-Pierre. Jane, an attractive englishwoman, works in Paris as an interpreter (Russian & French into English). She is having a passionate relationship with Ellis, who claims to be a poet.
Jean-Pierre, a member of the Communist Party, and a doctor in a Paris hospital, secretly admires and desires Jane. He wants to help in war ravaged Afghanistan and is going to Afghanistan, ostensibly, to provide medical assistance to the rebel forces fighting against the Soviets. He asks Jane if she would come out to be his interpreter and assist medically. He is jealous of Ellis and knows that her relationship with Ellis may stop her from going.
When Jean-Pierre finds out that Ellis is an undercover CIA spy, he can't wait to expose his lies to Jane.
Jane is appalled that Ellis has lied to her so she leaves and goes to Afghanistan (valley of the 5 lions) where she finds herself in harsh conditions and constant threat of Russian attack as the rebels fight for their freedom from the Russians. She marries Jean-Pierre. They minister to the local inhabitants, who have never seen a doctor before, and patch together and stitch-up the wounded warriors. An American visits the valley with an important message from the White House for Masud, a famous and effective guerrilla leader. The messenger is Ellis. A terrible treachery is discovered, shortly after he arrives and Jane is abandoned by her husband and has to get herself and her baby out of the war zone.

It is a romantic adventure, a lustful Mills & Boon. I was disappointed in this book, he has wrote better. As I had taken it on holiday I didn't have much choice so I made myself finish it. Unfortunately, I read this book after I had read The Kite Runner and 1000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and compared to these it was lame. Khaled tells it as it is, warts and all, where as Follett dressed it up & wartered it down. There were one or two moments that grabbed your attention with action and steamy sex scenes but the characters didn't grow on me.
It was written in the late 1980's and perhaps if I had read it then I would have really liked it as there were not many books, fictional, written about that period in Afghanistan history.