Whiteout

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

In Follett's latest Le Mans-paced thriller, doses of the possible antidote to a deadly virus are stolen from a small pharmaceutical lab in Scotland, much to the dismay of the lab's security chief, Toni Gallo. Not only is the actual virus capable of decimating the British Isles, but the theft is certain to interfere with Toni's budding romance with the drug company's widowed founder, Stanley Oxenford. It is to Follett's credit that he is able to combine biological terrorism, romance, sadism, Alzheimer's disease and family dysfunction into an effective antidote to boredom. But these disparate elements, not to mention the idea of trapping heroes and villains with the virus in a country home cut off from the rest of humanity by a snowstorm, come close to parody. Reader Rosenblat's breathless British-accented narration crosses that line at times, particularly when she reads passages in which Follett tries, not always convincingly, to provide reasons for why his good guys can't summon help with their cell phones. On the other hand, she is extremely effective in delivering the novel's dialogue. Her Scottish brogues are especially impressive, as is the cruel Cockney accent she employs to add menace to the book's most unique character, a homicidal thug named Daisy who possesses a broken nose, a ring-pierced lip and beautiful hands. Simultaneous release with the Dutton hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 15, 2004). (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Ken Follett

Well known as a writer of international best sellers, Ken Follett was born in Wales and began his career as a newspaper reporter in Wales and in London. His first bestselling novel, The Eye of the Needle, won the Edgar Award and was adapted as a film starring Kate Nelligan and Donald Sutherland. He followed this success with four more bestselling thrillers - Triple, The Key to Rebecca, The Man from St Petersburg, and Lay Down with Lions. His novel, Pillars of the Earth, departed from the thriller genre and was on the New York Times bestseller list for 18 weeks. It also reached the number one position on lists in Canada, Great Britain, and Italy, and was on Germany's bestseller list for six years. He followed Pillars of the Earth with Night over Water, A Dangerous Fortune, and A Place Called Freedom, before returning to the writing of thrillers with The Third Twin, a scorching suspense novel. Miniseries rights to this book were sold to CBS for $1,400,000. The series, starring Kelly McGillis and Larry Hagman, was broadcast in November of 1997. In November of 1998, Follett published The Hammer of Eden, another suspense story. Ken Follett is married to Barbara Follett, who is the Member of Parliament for Stevenage in Hertfordshire. He is a lover of Shakespeare and an amateur musician who plays bass guitar in a band called Damn Right I Got the Blues. He is also chair of the National Year of Reading 1998-99, a British government initiative to raise literacy levels, president of the Dyslexia Institute, and a council member of the National Literacy Trust.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Dutton Adult

Filesize

655.83 KB

Number of Pages

480

eBook ISBN

9780786576845