“It is easily one of the best spy thrillers that I’ve read and it’s as good as (if not better) than Follett’s more popular ‘Eye of The needle’.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
So, I’m done with my 14th Ken Follett novel (all read this year) and if someone were to ask me to select the best 5 it would be a mighty difficult task. The way he weaves a story based on historical facts is simply stunning.
Triple is another masterpiece – a Spy thriller based in the year 1968 when Israel were believed to have pulled off a mighty coup by stealing a huge consignment of Uranium ore.
The opening scene/prologue sets the story up beautifully wherein all the major characters(students at this stage) are meeting at an Oxford Professor’s home.
There’s Nat Dickstein the English Jew(who goes on to become a top Mossad agent), a Russian named Rostov (predictably a future KGB colonel), an Arab named Hassan(Egyptian intelligence and later something more deadly), a Sicilian-American named Al Cortone (we all know what Sicilians are known for), the Professor’s lovely Lebanese Wife (who Nat has a crush on) and the couple’s lovely 5 yr old daughter (another vital character in the future).
The story is very simple. Egypt are on the verge of kick starting the process of making their own nukes, so quite obviously Israel needs to get its hands on some Uranium yesterday. And there’s a catch that the rest of the world shouldn’t know about it. So, the Chief of Mossad gives this seemingly impossible task to his best agent – Nat Dickstein who’s now living in a Kibbutz. The task being – steal a huge quantity of Uranium without being caught and without the theft being reported.
What follows is a game of spies between Mossad, KGB, Egyptian intelligence and the Palestinian Mujaheds also joining in the action. The entire novel is edge of the seat stuff but all the action sequences are entirely believable.
It is easily one of the best spy thrillers that I’ve read and it’s as good as (if not better) than Follett’s more popular ‘Eye of The needle’.
5/5.
Reviewed by:
Aditya Singh
Added 18th November 2017
