Synopses & Reviews
Like no other suspense author in his genre, Follett reinvents the thriller with each new storyline. But nothing matches the intricate, knife-edge drama of
Whiteout.
A missing canister of a deadly virus. A lab technician bleeding from the eyes. Toni Gallo, the security director of a Scottish medical research firm, knows she has problems, but she has no idea of the nightmare to come.
As a Christmas Eve blizzard whips out of the north, several people converge on a remote family house. Stanley Oxenford, the research company's director, has everything riding on the drug he is developing to fight the virus but he isn't the only one: His grown children, who have come to spend Christmas, have their eyes on the money it will bring; Toni Gallo, forced to resign from the police department in disgrace, is betting her career on keeping the drug safe; a local television reporter, determined to move up, has sniffed the story, even if he has to bend the facts to tell it; and a violent trio of thugs is on its way to steal it for a client already waiting though what the client really has in mind is something that will shock them all.
As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge. Filled with startling twists at every turn, Whiteout rockets Follett to a class by himself.
Review
"Implausible? Probably. Exciting? Absolutely....Follett makes the formula work with his trademark strong females, large cast of characters, and race-against-the-clock pace....Strongly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"[A] bio-thriller...well larded with family drama....Follett's sure hand at the controls of a high-octane plot delivers the expected thrills in expected ways." Booklist
Review
"Follett's trademark tension and breakneck pace manage (just barely) to overshadow the YA prose." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man's world in the mining pits; an American law student rejected by love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House; a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy; and two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution.
From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes readers into the inextricably entangled fates of five families-and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again.
Synopsis
Like no other suspense author in his genre, Follett reinvents the thriller with each newstoryline. But nothing matches the intricate, knife-edge drama of Whiteout.
A missing canister of a deadly virus. A lab technician bleeding from the eyes. Toni Gallo, the security director of a Scottish medical research firm, knows she has problems, but she has no idea of the nightmare to come.
As a Christmas Eve blizzard whips out of the north, several people converge on a remote family house. Stanley Oxenford, the research company's director, has everything riding on the drug he is developing to fight the virus—but he isn't the only one: His grown children, who have come to spend Christmas, have their eyes on the money it will bring; Toni Gallo, forced to resign from the police department in disgrace, is betting her career on keeping the drug safe; a local television reporter, determined to move up, has sniffed the story, even if he has to bend the facts to tell it; and a violent trio of thugs is on its way to steal it for a client already waiting—though what the client really has in mind is something that will shock them all.
As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks—jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries—crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge. Filled with startling twists at every turn, Whiteout rockets Follett to a class by himself.
About the Author
Ken Follett's breakout thriller,
Eye of the Needle, was published in 1978. A taut, original thriller with a memorable woman character in the central role, the book went on to win the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into a film starring Kate Nelligan and Donald Sutherland. Follett proceeded to write four more bestselling thrillers:
Triple,
The Key to Rebecca,
The Man from St Petersburg, and
Lie Down with Lions.
In 1984 he wrote On Wings of Eagles, the true story of how two employees of Ross Perot were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979 which was made into a miniseries with Richard Crenna as Ross Perot and Burt Lancaster as Colonel "Bull" Simons. Ken radically changed course with The Pillars of the Earth, a novel about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages. Published in September 1989 to rave reviews, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for eighteen weeks. It also reached No. 1 on lists in Canada, Great Britain and Italy, was on the German bestseller list for six years and attained cult-status worldwide.
Although he abandoned the straightforward spy genre, his stories still had powerful narrative drive, strong women characters, and elements of suspense and intrigue. He followed The Pillars of the Earth with Night over Water, A Dangerous Fortune, and A Place Called Freedom. He then returned to the thriller with The Third Twin, a scorching suspense novel about a young woman scientist who uncovers a secret experiment in genetic engineering. In Publishing Trends' annual survey of international fiction bestsellers for 1997, The Third Twin was ranked No. 2 in the world, beaten only by John Grisham's The Partner.
The Hammer of Eden, another nail-biting contemporary suspense story, came in 1998. Code Zero, about brainwashing and rocket science in the fifties, was published in December 2000. Only days after the novel was finished, film rights were snapped up by Doug Wick, producer of the blockbuster Gladiator. Then came Jackdaws, a cinematic thriller about a ragtag, all-female band of British agents, followed by Hornet Flight, published in 2002.
His latest novel, Whiteout (2004), is a contemporary thriller about the theft of a deadly virus from a research lab. Set in the remote Scottish Highlands over a stormy, snow-bound Christmas, Whiteout crackles with jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries, hidden traitors and unexpected heroes.
Ken Follett is married to Barbara Follett, the Member of Parliament for Stevenage in Hertfordshire. They live in a rambling rectory in Stevenage with two Labrador retrievers called Custard and Bess. In a busy life focused on work, family and politics, Ken also manages to find time for involvement in his community. He is President of the Dyslexia Institute, Council Member of the National Literacy Trust, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Chair of Governors of Roebuck Primary School and Nursery, Patron of Stevenage Home-Start, director of Stevenage Leisure Ltd and Vice-President of Stevenage Borough Football club.