There are no secrets and few surprises in Triple, but Ken Follett knows other ways to keep tension high in his thrillers. Follett has taken one convention of the spy-novel—spy accomplishes dangerous mission, barely avoiding treacherous counter-agents—and turned it inside-out once again. In The Eye of the Needle, the protagonist is a World War II German spy who we hope will be caught. In Triple, Israeli agent Nat Dickstein is the hero, but one whose identity is uncovered, whose plans are guessed, and whose every move is traced by Russian and Egyptian spies.
So the tension in this well-constructed thriller stems solely from Nat keeping one step ahead of his opponents. His mission includes several topics of current interest, and is complicated enough to keep one wondering how it ever could be concluded successfully…. How he manages this (all the time wishing he were back on his kibbutz growing grapes—no appealing spy hero enjoys his job), and how the Russian and Egyptian agents follow him and try to stop him, make for all-in-one-sitting reading. And the technical and political details, plus the requisite romance and sex scenes, fill out the book nicely, without the padding that clouded The Eye of the Needle. (pp. 36-7)
Lisa Derman, "Brief Reviews: 'Triple'," in The New Republic (reprinted by permission of The New Republic; © 1979 The New Republic, Inc.), Vol. 181, No. 19, November 10, 1979, pp. 36-7.
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