Whiteout by Ken Follett

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

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.

As the storm worsens, the emotional sparks-jealousies, distrust, sexual attraction, rivalries-crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge. Filled with startling twists at every turn, Whiteout rockets Follett to a class by himself.

My thoughts:

Once I picked this book up I had a hard time putting it down! It's thrilling and suspenseful but it also has a great warm familial feel to it too. The director of a big research facility has his children and grandchildren to the family home in secluded Scotland for Christmas. On the same day, a deadly virus is stolen from his research facility by a band of 3 thugs and that's where the action is. They all converge at the directors home in the middle of a blizzard and everyone has to use their wits as well as strength to survive the night. A couple parts might have been slightly unbelievable but it really didn't detract from the story. The characters in Whiteout are diverse and authentic. Whiteout is a great atmospheric book for the Christmas season.