The Third Twin: A Novel [Hardcover]

Ken Follett (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Crown Publishers; Stated First Edition edition (1996)
• ISBN-10: 0330465759
• ISBN-13: 978-0330465755
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,183,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ken Follett was only twenty-seven when he wrote the award-winning EYE OF THE NEEDLE, which became an international bestseller. His celebrated PILLARS OF THE EARTH was voted into the top 100 of Britain's best-loved books in the BBC's the Big Read and the sequel, WORLD WITHOUT END, will be published in Autumn 2007. He has since written several equally successful novels including, most recently, WHITEOUT. He is also the author of non-fiction bestseller ON WINGS OF EAGLES. He lives with his family in London and Hertfordshire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great BioTechnological Thriller, March 8, 2002

By 

aikisen (Calcutta, WB India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Twin (Paperback)

I notice that there are two distinct groups of reviewers for this book. One group feels that it is excellent and the other feels that it is very poor in quality. However, I have found the book to be an excellent read and so have other book lovers among my acquaintances.
The story is gripping, full of suspense and with a lot of twists. I liked the strong determined character of the heroine. The characters of Steve Logan, Berrington Jones etc. are also well drawn sketches. The plot is intriguing and deals with cutting edge BioTechnology.It has been thoroughly researched as any Ken Follett novel generally is (I know Follett has a good research team to help him out while writing ) The tension is taut throughout. It is well written as any Ken Follett novel is. It has all the ingredients of a top class thriller.
The only drawback that I have noticed was the computer program that Jeannie Ferrami wrote to retrieve matches from databases. That seems a bit far fetched since the program seems to run on any platform, search any database of any type. I have not come across any program like that.
However, apart from this minor flaw, there is hardly any blemish in the book. It made me a Follett fan at once and though the other books he has written are different, I have enjoyed most of them.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Big Disappointment, November 18, 2002

By 

Blake Etem (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Twin (Paperback)

On a recent trip to Florida I stopped in at the airport book shop and purchased a book for the return flight to Italy. I had read Ken Follet's excellent "Pillars of the Earth" a few years ago and decided to try another of his books. This book did not even approach the level of the first Follet novel I read. Unlike "Pillars", in "The Third Twin" Follet does not appear to have done any research on his subject matter. In one section he has a character reminiscing about his father who was a SECOND LIEUTENANT in the US NAVY. The US Navy has never had second lieutenants; junior officers of that pay grade are called Ensigns. But this is only the beginning of technical errors that destroy an otherwise compelling story line. One of the main weapons of the protagonist is a computer program that she wrote to compare elements in database to develop genetic comparisons. Unfortunately, the way the thing is supposed to work is closer to something that Gandalf or Harry Potter would whip up rather than something out of computer science class. The poorly researched and unbelievable stuff goes on and worsens throughout the book. More examples - people out on bail without a security clearance wandering the halls of the Pentagon and putting magic floppy disks into the Pentagon computers - you guessed it - so they could search the databases on those computers. All in all, I was very, very glad when the book drew to its predictable close.

Follet is a good writer, but he really needs to research his subjects better before writing a book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Been done before, and better, September 13, 2000

By 

J. Berry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Twin (Paperback)

A young scientist studying links in genes to the potential for criminality comes across two men, identical down to their DNA, raised separately and born on different days. As she investigates, becoming more involved with the law abiding twin, Steve, she discovers that there may be a third twin still at large, who may be guilty of raping one of her friends.

This starts off well, as an interesting yarn, but rapidly goes downhill, especially when the words 'perfect soldier' leapt out at you. Right after that the story falls flat. Clones and killing machines have been done before, and combining them doesn't make any difference. The text is bogged down in unnecessary details, such as obsessive details about how the female lead dresses, and the ending is decidedly flat.

Follett can do amazing thrillers and fascinating historical fiction, but this isn't one of them. Aeroplane reading, but not much more. (It gets three stars for being interesting at the start.)