Through her research on twins and the genetic components of aggression, scientist Jeannie Ferrami makes a startling discovery. Using a restricted FBI database, she finds two young men who appear to be identical twins: Steve, a law student, and Dennis: a convicted murderer. Yet they were born on different days, to different mothers, in hospitals hundreds of miles apart.
As Ferrami delves into their backgrounds, she unwittingly locks horns with some of the most powerful forces in America, including the university where she works, The New York Times, even the Pentagon.
What secret has Ferrami uncovered? Can she trust her boss and mentor, or must she put her life in the hands of Steve Logan, the twin she finds herself falling in love with--even though he's surrounded by intrigue and suspicion? But one thing is certain: There are those who will stop at nothing to keep their chilling conspiracy in the shadows. . . .
The Third Twin FROM OUR EDITORS While researching traits of aggression in DNA, genetic researcher Jeannie Ferrami makes a startling discovery. She has apparently uncovered a pair of identical twins who were born not only in different hospitals but to different mothers as well. When she begins to investigate, it becomes apparent that she's stepped into something nefarious that is far beyond her control. The Third Twin is Follett at his riveting best. FROM THE PUBLISHER In this scorching contemporary thriller, Ken Follett has crafted an electrifying tale of the chilling possibilities of genetic manipulation. Jeannie Ferrami, a brilliant young research scientist studying the genetic components of aggression, makes a startling discovery. Using a restricted FBI database, she locates two young men who appear to be identical twins: Steve, a law student, and Dennis, a convicted murderer. Yet they were born on different days, to different mothers, in hospitals hundreds of miles apart. When she delves into their backgrounds, forces as powerful as the Pentagon and the New York Times take notice. The more she learns, the worse it gets. Steve is accused of a terrible crime, which he swears he did not commit. As Jeannie finds herself falling in love with him, she has to ask herself how she can be sure he is different from his murderous twin brother. When her life is threatened, she realizes there is much more than just a scientific problem facing her. Unwittingly, she has stumbled upon evidence of a conspiracy involving a top biotech company, right-wing politicians, and her own university. Their aim is as shocking as it is technologically possible in this era of genetic manipulation: the reshaping of American society according to their own reactionary, racist, and sexist principles.
FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly After 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 impossibilityidentical 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 giantand 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 novelit's heavy on the melodrama and on sexual violencebut its wicked narrative energy and catchy theme will likely propel it quickly onto the charts. Library Journal Follet is most famous for his thrillers (e.g., Eye of the Needle, Audio Reviews, LJ 10/15/91). He has moved into other genres recently, but the present title represents a move back in the direction of the suspense thriller. After a friend is raped, Dr. Jeannie Ferrami finds certain anomalies in the apparently airtight case the police have against the chief suspect, a subject in her psychology research group. Jeannie's honest doubts about his guilt, plus the growing attraction between the two, spur her to push the search for the real rapist in spite of opposition from her university. There is tension and excitement here, though not comparable to Follett's earlier work, and the story flows smoothly enough through the lips of narrator Diane Venora. Too many of the plot advances are based on coincidence and sudden insight, however. Recommended for public libraries.-Gordon Cheatham, U.S. Army Lib. Div., Alexandria, Va.
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