The book that I read had the first 5 pages missing. It also had pages 467 to 498 missing, but this
wasn’t really too much of a problem. Having read Ken Follett before, I’ve kinda become good at sensing whats coming.
The essence of his style is clear; all loose ends get tied up, the good guys always win,
very tiny loose ends tie up the big knots. :)
The book starts
off with a lady genetics researcher (Jean Ferrami) working on a project Mthat wants to ascertain whether identical (not fraternal) twins, brought up by different parents, unknown to each other can have
different social qualities based on the environment they are brought up
in.
Of course, the villain of the piece, Dr. Berrington Jones, her boss is a big nasty. Dr. Berry and 3 other of his cronies, way back in the 60s, created a company called Genetico and did out-there,
illegal and morally irresponsible stuff, like taking sperm from a
handsome naval captain an egg from .. I forget..., splitting the fertilized egg into 8 identical clones and then illegally planting them in unsuspecting women who came in a fertility clinic run by these
weirdos.
These docs are racists idiots trying to make the perfect American and one one the
3 cronies wants to become the President of the USA and bring in all kinds of laws that are favorable to the whites. The thing that gets uncovered somewhere in the middle is that these men have kept tabs on these boys secretly all through these years.
The
fun starts after 22 years when Dr. Ferrami’s computer programme sifts through a huge database to identify twins based on cardiac patterns, fingerprints etc..
She finds Clone 1, in jail and Clone 2 (the
hero, Steve Logan), a student(?) from the same university who tries to
pick her up, thinks that they are twins and concludes that its a spectacular find for her research.
Now is when things start warming up on the plot.
Clone 3 rapes a friend of Dr Ferrami, Clone 2, is framed. Dr Ferrami doesn’t believe that. She still doesnt know there’s more than two, till quite far in the story (which makes it really interesting to read).
She
then starts digging more and finds out that there are more than 2 twins.. hence the title.. the third twin. She digs more and finds out that there are not just 2 but 4 twins.. not twins., 8 clones.
Meanwhile, Genetico, which incidentally funds Dr. Ferrami’s research program is about to be taken over in a 180 million dollar deal by another genetics company.
If word gets out that Genetico was responsible for such bad stuff in the old days, the take over might never happen, or even worse, the takeover might happen and then the clones, and their parents can
sue the pants off the company.
Of course Dr Barry and his cronies are constantly trying kill off Dr. Ferammi and Steve, who of course, in the end announce the startling news at the very press
conference at which the announcement of the takeover is going to happen.
Excellent stuff, a super thrilling read.
(You should find this review here too https://acridtongue.blogspot.com/2007/08/ken-follett-third-twin.html)