Rating: 
Summary: Mildly entertaining despite its flaw
Review: As a suspense novel, this book is fairly entertaining. As a primer on genetics or anything scientific, it is fairly useless and inaccurate. I would give the book 3 stars for its entertainment value, but knock it down to 2 stars, for its many flaws and lapses in logic.The many flaws in this book are pointed out by other reveiwers. But some of my "favorite" are:
-just what kind of scientist is the hero? Is she a geneticist, psychologist or a computer programmer?
-just how many times can the hero be fooled by the bad twin?
-would a police detective really hold off on arresting an arsonist and rapist, just because someone she didn't like asked her to?
-Follett's fixation on women's underwear is just creepy (and I am a guy)
-the whole plan to reveal the badguys at the end of the book is very contrived
-all the badguys are conversatives (opposite of Tom Clancy, whose badguys are all liberals) This book has an interesting premise. But there is no suspense to it, since it is given away in the title. The idea of genetically bred, superhuman clones with a violent streak could have been explored a lot more than the superficial treatment given in this book. We could have seen more action in how they relate to society and each other. But despite all the flaws, I did not hate this book. It had a pleasant storyline and flow. The story moved along fairly well. It was pretty good light summer reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, predictable and full of liberal buzzwords
Review: The Third Twin is the fourth Follett book I've read and it ranks a distant last. In Dangerous Fortune, Night over Water and Pillars of the Earth, Follett takes the reader on a journey into the past with different cultures and different customs. His characterization makes each period come alive. The Third Twin is different in that it is set in the present day. It is a traditional, sub-par thriller that is made worse by Follett's political bias or ignorance. I'll mention more on that later. Jeannie Ferrami studies identical twins and her studies leads her to some facts that some certain bad guys don't want to be discovered. Ferrami and one of her subjects race against the three bad guys to expose the bad guys for the evil people that they are. It is true that they were evil, but Follett does a horrible job of making me fear this people or making me think they are worthy bad guys. In the beginning of the book, Follett says Senator Proust has photos of himself with Rush Limbaugh, Geraldo Riveria and Newt Gingrich. Later a reference is made to Barry Goldwater as a hero to one of the bad guys. The bad guys are also mentioned to be in favor of gun control. Now, to a liberal, these aren't ideal beliefs, but they hardly make a person evil. Yet, Follett fails to do anything else to characterize the bad guys as evil. So we are supposed to believe they are bad because they are Republican. Also, the three bad guys are involved in cloning and genetic engineering. To me, Follett implies that this is a right-wing issue and that only conservatives would use genetics to create the type of humans they want. This book was several years old, but as far as I can tell, this is a political neutral issue. There are wackos on both sides willing to use genetics to engineer humans. I don't know if Follett is a bigot against conservatives or just naïve to think that throwing in some liberal buzzwords would be all he would need to do to create the sense that the bad guys truly are bad in this novel. Politics aside, this story was interesting yet I found much of the dialogue between characters both childish and stating the obvious. I never felt like Ferrami those helping her were fighting to stop something truly evil. Maybe that is because the main plan they were trying to stop was the sale of a genetics firm in which Senator Proust would get $60 million to run for president. Follett himself makes this implausible by making Proust such an unlikeable character. Also, selling a firm for money doesn't just lead to being president. So I never really feel like the unlikeable Proust will get the power that he wants. I plan on reading more Follett but will stick to the period pieces and WWII stuff.
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