Triple by Ken Follett is another one of his rather incredible thrillers. It tells the story of how Nat Dickstein, a rather important member of Mossad, is attempting to find a way to acquire the materials for Israel to build its own atomic bombs, preferably before their neighbor Egypt manages to do so. To do so he must find an untraceable way of stealing two hundred tons of Uranium which is not easy because of all of the various oversight on Uranium in Europe. However, his efforts are slowed down in part by his own organization when it becomes worried that he has become compromised but also by various others including the KGB, the Egyptians, and Fedayeen terrorists. As he works his way through Europe formulating a plan he is discovered by an intelligence asset working for the Egyptians but due to a variety of reasons the Egyptian asset in question also allies with a KGB asset also determined to stop Dickstein. Due to the unusual circumstances of actually knowing both agents Dickstein must face his own past and in the process rediscover what it means to be human and fall in love even if that potentially compromises his operation.
This was much shorter than the Follett books I am more familiar with but it was still an incredible read. Follett has this really great knack of creating a whole cast of incredibly compelling characters and then skillfully interweaving them all into this dense, complex and intricate narrative all while carefully balancing their individual perspectives. I can legitimately say that very few authors can do that as well as Follett and he definitely did it with this novel. There are close to a dozen different perspectives, though some are more minor and infrequent, that appear in this novel and yet every single one adds some level of nuance to the overall story. I found myself heavily enthralled throughout and had a hard time putting it down to take a break. This is definitely the kind of story I could easily find myself losing an afternoon reading. On top of the intricacy of the characters and the storytelling, the plot was easily as intricate though much less intricate than his longer works. There was still considerable detail put into the story and you can definitely tell that Follett did a lot of research in order to write this. Something that has long impressed me with Follett is how he is able to so easily portray different sides and cultures in a conflict. For this one that was done very skillfully and had a great impact on the development of certain elements of the overall plot. I was greatly impressed with the book even if I was already biased towards enjoying it because I was a fan of Follett previously. This book is earning 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.
This is a thriller and a pretty good one at that so if that tends to appeal to you then I suggest you try this one. It is well worth the consideration. I will say that it does deal with some pretty tricky or difficult topics such as the idea of terrorism or anti-semitism and it does have some relatively minor adult content. Most of it is more in the background but it is present so keep that in mind when considering this book. There are also some minor references to gangs or the mafia and some violence. Considering the time frame of the book there are also references to being anti-gay though the characters don’t actually seem to be. I would heavily suggest this book be primarily read by adults or older teens and not necessarily anyone younger because of this. The book is still worth reading as long as you keep all of this in mind. If you decide to try it, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.