.com Identical twins have been the storyteller's friend since Roman times. Master-scribbler Ken Follett does the arrangement one better in his latest yarn, The Third Twin. The heroine, Jeannie Ferrami, is a young professor at Jones Falls University (JFU)(think Johns Hopkins) who is investigating the balance of nature versus nurture in criminality. Driven by a secret from her past, Dr. Ferrami is overjoyed to find that a straight-arrow law student at JFU has an identical twin (raised separately) who is a convicted rapist. She is not overjoyed, however, when that man is arrested for raping her best friend. Surely Mr. Perfect couldn't be guilty--enter the evil masterminds, three Nixon-era compadres who have been toiling for decades to make America safe for racial purity. It's bad enough that one of the conspirators is Dr. Ferrami's boss, but another is eyeing the Oval Office. The young professor has stumbled onto a secret that could ruin them all, and it's only a matter of pages before bad things start to happen to the pair. The shortest distance between two points is a Follett plot. Look elsewhere for subtlety; entertainment, we got.From Publishers WeeklyAfter three consecutive historical sagas (A Dangerous Fortune, etc.), Follett returns to the threshold of the 21st century with a provocative, well-paced and sensational biotech-thriller about the genetic manipulation of human embryos. Striving to prove that offspring genetically predisposed toward aggression can learn to sublimate their combative nature through childhood conditioning by socially responsible parents, a feisty and brilliant young university researcher, Jeannie Ferrami, develops software to identify identical twins who have been reared apart. When she stumbles across what seems to be an impossibility?identical twins born to different mothers at separate locations on different dates, Jeannie runs into serious trouble. Pitted against her is, foremost, her own faculty mentor, Berrington Jones, a world-renowned authority on biotechnical engineering. In devious partnership with another scientist and a bigoted U.S. senator with presidential aspirations, Jones is co-founder of Genetico, a small company that pioneered biogenetic research. The trio is now in the final stages of a lucrative friendly buyout by a corporate giant?and they don't take kindly to Jeannie's diggings. Multiples created by genetic manipulation aren't new to thrillers (e.g., Ira Levin's The Boys from Brazil), but Follett puts a clever spin on the concept. And despite entwining outlandish plot strands of biotechnical skullduggery, a neo-Nazi candidate for president, academic politics and corporate greed with a steamy romance between Jeannie and one of the twins, the novel shines with the authenticity that's Follett's trademark as it explores the Internet and the mind-boggling data banks of personal statistics maintained by insurance empires, the Pentagon and the FBI. This isn't Follett's most sophisticated novel?it's heavy on the melodrama and on sexual violence?but its wicked narrative energy and catchy theme will likely propel it quickly onto the charts. Major ad/promo; simultaneous Random House audio and large-print editions; author satellite tour; Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalCloning and multiplying have seized the collective creative imagination, and lately there seems to be a double behind every lamp-post. Follett, whose Key to Rebecca (1980) ranks among the best thrillers ever, now weighs in with a saga that resounds with contemporary themes, tremendous characters, and a plot that puts high energy back into the doppelganger tradition. With a multiplier effect that registers booming numbers on the Richter scale of thrillers, Follett creates a young scientist who starts out to prove a point in the hoary debate of nurture vs. nature. As her computer program shuffles through huge databases tracking down twins raised apart, she stumbles on a secret cloning experiment that has let loose eight "twins," three of whom become intimate subjects in her study. The patina of glamorous biotech science is vigorously burnished by the oils of lust for sex and power. This is a surefire multiple-copy purchase for most libraries.?Barbara Conaty, Library of CongressCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. what are examples of forms The Third Twin
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Two Sides Of Research.......Good and Not So MuchBy Norma LambertThis is not the usual work of Ken Follett. The story is valid. The characters are valid. You have to be able to come to terms with a researchprogram gone very much awry, and kept hidden for two decades. The consequences of the mistakes made by the scientists naturallysurface , and create havoc in parts of society.Due to the work of Dr. Ferrami, the mistakes are uncovered , at a crucial time. She perseveres, and the truth does out. It's a goodread. However, it didn't rivet my attention the way other works of Mr. Follett have.,0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Mostly I liked this bookBy AllynMostly I liked this book, but I thought the ending really was rather contrived. I suppose it had to be that way to make it all come out right, but it seemed artificial. Otherwise, I enjoyed it. It kept me in suspense throughout.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Third TwinBy Kindle CustomerGood story plot. Just kept waiting for more curve ball with a punch and didn't get one. I guess I expected more??