Rocketgirl's Full Review: Ken Follett - The Third Twin
This book is a suspense novel by Ken Follett. This is the first book I have read by him and I enjoyed it a lot. I have to admit that I had not picked up a book by Follet in the past because for some reason I was under the impression he wrote spy novels, something that doesn't interest me. I quickly found that this book at least as nothing to do with spies. Unless you count sneaking around with corporate secrets....
In this book, scientist Dr. Jeannie Ferrami is doing research at Jones Falls University in Baltimore. Her research is related to twins and how when they are raised apart they still have similar characteristics and interests. Her research further delves into what factor in their backgrounds may cause one twin to be a normal tax-paying adult while the other turned out to be a criminal.
To do her research, Jeannie has designed a sophisticated search program that searches medical records of universities and insurance companies. In her research she comes across Steve Logan, a student at Jones Falls, and Dennis Pinker, a convicted killer in Virginia, his twin.
Meanwhile, a fire breaks out in the girl's locker room at the college campus. The girls get out, but in the confusion a psycho with murderous intent traps Jeannie's friend at the swimming pool and brutally rapes her. Lisa picks Steve Logan out of a line-up. By then Jeannie has met Steve and feels sure his personality type does not fit the rapist profile she has run across so much in her studies. But then she runs across Pinker and thinks he may be the answer to Steve's problems. Except Pinker is in jail. So who is the look-a-like that raped Lisa? There must be a third twin.
I really enjoyed the book for its unusual plot. It had lots of twists and turns. With the thousands of books out there, I like it when I find one that is just a little bit different. I liked that the main part of the story was set on a college campus. But it also switched settings to Philadelphia to Washington D.C. too, which was interesting.
For the most part I enjoyed the characters. Jeannie Ferrami is the main character and is admirable for her smarts and for being a college professor. But--the author kept throwing in some little thing about her that actually made me like her a little less each time. Like she has a nose ring...uh, okay. Then she has a tatoo...uh, okay. She used to smoke pot...well. And the half dozen "f" words in the whole book were used by her, which was totally out of character with the rest of her vocabulary. She seemed pretty immature at times. Even the name picked for her character--was this an attempt at political-correctness to pick an "Italian-American" name? For me, it handicapped quick reading with its oddness.
On the other hand I liked the part of Steve Logan. Just the right of cockiness for a self-assured 22 year old college student. Smart and funny with a good upbringing. He's sensitive when he should be and passionate at the right times (you knew there would be a romance building here, didn't you?). You can really feel his despair when he is arrested for a crime he knows he didn't commit.
I also enjoyed the character of Berrington Jones. This is the professor in Jeannie's department. When he sees Steve in the lab he goes into a panic. Why is that? Jones has a secret that Steve's presence threatens. And to stop it from getting out he has to get Jeannie fired from the university. Since this aspect is introduced so early, it makes the identity of the bad guys fairly predictable. It also makes the nature of their secret pretty predictable too. But exactly what they did is amazing. The author does a great job portraying Jones' panic and his attempt to cover up things with his partners.
The story was fast-paced, with short chapters. It was about evenly balanced between dialogue and narrative. The story is told in third-person from several different perspectives, which added more suspense each time you hurried to get back to previous plot thread. As before mentioned, there is only a minimum of swearing. There is some violence, but it is not graphically described. There are no sexual scenes, though a small amount of romance is present.
This was a fascinating tale since it involved the study of DNA and how environment and genetics influence a person's makeup. I have peeked at the titles of some of Follett's other novels and see they are a wide variety of types. This one was good enough, I think I will try some of the others.
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