Whiteout - Rambling Readers

Paperback, 626 pages

English language

Published Dec. 6, 2005 by Brand: Large Print Press, Large Print Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-59413-109-7

(1 review)

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 …

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…

31 editions

Sean Randall reviewed Whiteout by Ken Follett

Review of 'Whiteout' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book, because the female lead annoyed me somewhat. I think her history was overblown and far too much like baggage, incongruous with a major fight she has where her femininity comes into play in something of a demeaning way.

But, reading the action unfold in the latter half of the book, I really got the impression that it'd make an excellent movie - lots of quick cuts, brief shots of people in various locations. OF course a lot of action takes place in an old house with outbuildings, and in literary terms I think the length of what had been already written built up nicely, which a movie would have to emulate so the audience knew why the players were where they were.

Finally, just to add to my Folett irritants... Americanisms (windshield etc). They're expected from an American author even …

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book, because the female lead annoyed me somewhat. I think her history was overblown and far too much like baggage, incongruous with a major fight she has where her femininity comes into play in something of a demeaning way.

But, reading the action unfold in the latter half of the book, I really got the impression that it'd make an excellent movie - lots of quick cuts, brief shots of people in various locations. OF course a lot of action takes place in an old house with outbuildings, and in literary terms I think the length of what had been already written built up nicely, which a movie would have to emulate so the audience knew why the players were where they were.

Finally, just to add to my Folett irritants... Americanisms (windshield etc). They're expected from an American author even when he writes in situ because it's his culture. But I'm sure Follett is Welsh!