Triple (Signet) [Paperback]

Ken Follett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Signet | Publication Date: October 1, 1980

As Egypt comes closer to developing a nuclear bomb, the Mossad's number-one Israeli agent is given an impossible mission: to beat the Arabs in the nuclear arms race...

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The Bookcassette® format is a special recording technique developed as a means of condensing the full, unabridged audio text of a book to record it on fewer tapes. In order to listen to these tapes, you will need a cassette player with balance control to adjust left/right speaker output. Special adaptors to allow these tapes to be played on any cassette player are available through the publisher or some US retail electronics stores. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ken Follett is the author of numerous international bestsellers, including Jackdaws, Hornet Flight, Code to Zero, Triple, Eye of the Needle, Pillars of the Earth, and A Dangerous Fortune. He lives in England. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Signet (October 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451121600
• ISBN-13: 978-0451121608
• ASIN: 0451163540
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,248,675 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

86 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A First-Rate Political Suspense Thriller!, August 20, 2002

By 

Tiggah "the Anglophile" (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Triple (Signet) (Paperback)

So far as captivating page-turners go, few writers of popular fiction can top Ken Follett when he is at his best, and though I've not read all his novels, I definitely consider Triple (a political thriller) to be one of the best of those I've read. (Other favourites of mine are A Dangerous Fortune and The Third Twin--and I am eager to read The Pillars of the Earth).

Briefly (and without giving anything away), the plot centres around three secret agents--one from Israel's Mossad, one from Russia's KGB, and one from Egypt's Intelligence Agency. It involves the arms race between the Israelis and the Arabs and takes place in 1968. I really can say no more other than to mention that one of these groups has an idea for ensuring that it remains a competitor in that race, and the method the agent has for bringing that idea to fruition (and this is what the novel is all about) is complex and really quite ingenious.

Stripped to its most basic level, this could be said to be something of a cat and mouse story. However, there is so very much more to it than that, for Follett is a master storyteller who not only excels in deftly handling relationships between individuals (no mean feat in itself!) but is simply brilliant at creating characters that the reader cares about and hence in writing novels that one hates to reach the end of.

Though not a light read, this novel is certainly enlightening. I, for one, learned a fair bit about Middle Eastern politics and something about nuclear weaponry. Further, I felt Follett did a splendid job of conveying the political situation from the points of view of both the Israelis and the Palestinians in a manner that simultaneously evoked both sympathy for and censure of both sides. It's a sensitive topic (perhaps even more so now than in 1979 when the novel was first published) and one in which Follett's skill as a writer really shines through.

Highly recommended to fans of Ken Follett in general, to fans of the spy genre in particular, and to anyone who enjoys a consumately written (and insightful) thriller!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, September 15, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Triple (Signet) (Paperback)

Ken Follett is one of the best "bestseller" authors around. And he's versatile--check out Pillars of the Earth, which couldn't be more different than this book, Triple.

Triple centers on Nat Dickstein, who is working for the Israelis with the seemingly impossible task of stealing a sizable amount of uranium. Dickstein's exceedingly clever plan keeps you turning the pages, as do the counter-efforts of the Russians and Arab agents who want to derail his plan. The main characters are well-developed and multi-sided--and the "bad guys" are not just cookie-cutter heavies--they have their sympathetic side as well. Which, I think, is what kept me from putting the book down until I finished it. Great reading for a vacation, trip or just relaxation.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An impossible mission, sucesssfully narrated, May 25, 2008

By 

Claudio Di Gregorio "ClauDG" (Argentina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Triple (Mass Market Paperback)

An Israeli agent is ordered by his government to obtain radioactive materials so Israel could build its own bomb. The bosses don't know where and how to get them. The agent should figure it out by himself. To make matters worse, he should steal the stuff in a way no one would ever suspect Israel has the materials.
Of course, the bad guys and the Americans are also around, to complicate the plot even more.
An extremely intelligent premise: a mission against all odds.
A digression: I rate this Follett's book second only to Pillars of The Earth or The Eye of the Needle, and side by side with The Man from St. Petersburg.
In addition to being (in my view) his best plots, each of these four books inaugurated a formula, later somehow repeated by Follett in other books. (For example, The Key to Rebecca or Lie Down with Lions follow the steps of The Eye of the Needle). In this sense, Triple, although a spy story like The Eye... it is also very original.