
Triple
1979 | Thriller | 528 pages
Triple is the story of the most successful espionage coup – and best-kept secret – of this century. This taut espionage thriller comes from master of the genre, Ken Follett.
A Frightening Discovery
A Daring Mission
Time is Running Out
The public-address system at Cairo airport made a noise like a doorbell, and then the arrival of the Alitalia flight from Milan was announced in Arabic, Italian, French and English. Towfik el-Masiri left his table in the buffet and made his way out to the observation deck. He put on his sunglasses to look over the shimmering concrete apron. The Caravelle was already down and taxiing. Continue reading
I was very worried about this book. It was my first after the success of Eye of the Needle and I was afraid I might not be able to do it again. It happens to quite a lot of writers. They write one terrific book, the next one doesn’t sell quite so well, the third is a flop and they never write a fourth.
So I worked very hard on Triple. It is based on a true story about the Israelis stealing uranium to make their own nuclear bomb. I was intrigued by how the Israeli’s had gone about this and I saw the potential for a very good action climax where a bunch of commandos take over a ship. The style was known as “faction,” meaning fiction very closely based on fact, and it was fashionable in the 1970’s.
I didn’t really know how the Israelis had gone about stealing the uranium, but I read everything that had been written about the incident and came up with an educated guess. After the book was published, I found out that the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, was asking people where I had got my information from so maybe I guessed right! Triple sold world-wide and got to number one on the American best-seller list.
But even then I didn’t feel secure. I thought that if I could do three best-sellers in a row, maybe I could be a writer.
“Highly imaginative . . . fascinating.” – The Washington Post
“A literally earth-shaking confrontation.” – The New York Times
“Masterful . . . first-class . . . a grand slam home run.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer