ist schon länger war. war damals ein geschenk. fand es recht spannend, die charaktere haben mich damals emotional nicht gepackt. es war ein schnelles, gutes, spannendes lesevergnügen

(review in English below)

Lê-se bem e depressa, que era o que eu pretendia.
De resto, achei bastante básico. Um thriller pouco emocionante, com umas intrigas amorosas à mistura, incluindo um casal de adolescentes (!) que acaba por ter alguma influência no desenlace.
Gostei da personagem principal, Toni Gallo.
E pronto, cumpriu e ficou por aí.

A nice and quick read, which was what I was looking for.
Otherwise, I found it pretty basic. A not so thrilling thriller, with some love intrigue in the mix, including a teenage couple (!) that ends up having a somewhat relevant role in the outcome.
I liked the main character, Toni Gallo.
So, it did its job and that's that.

Comprei este livro na passada 6ªfeira, pois estava na Fnac com 40% de desconto e tinha ficado curiosa em relação ao autor, pois apesar de ter comprado Os Pilares da Terra, na feira do livro de Lisboa no ano passado.
E depois de ler o livro, a pergunta que se impõe “como é que eu ainda não tinha lido nada de Ken Follett?”
O livro é um thriller alucinante que nos deixa literalmente agarrados ao livro e que se torna muito complicado largar o livro.
A história começa com o desaparecimento de um cientista da Oxenford Medical, que acaba por ser encontrado morto em casa, devido a ter ficado infectado com um vírus mortal. No entanto, este é apenas o ponto introdutório da história, onde nos é dado a conhecer o verdadeiro perigo daquele vírus específico. Aos poucos vamo-nos envolvendo na vida das personagens e no plano para roubar a Oxenford Medical.
O ambiente criado faz-nos prender a respiração, em que tememos pela vida de determinadas personagens. Achei as personagens com características muito reais, principalmente os chamados maus da fita, que são mesmo agressivos, odiosos e que nos causam uma revolta enorme, principalmente Kit.
Muito, muito bom!

Che delusione.
Complici due notti insonni ho finito questo libro in due giorni, ma non mi è piaciuto per niente. Personaggi stereotipati, frasi ad effetto trite e ritrite, brutte descrizioni, scene inverosimili... bah, siamo sicuri che sia lo stesso autore de I pilastri della terra? Come fa ad essere lo stesso autore de Il terzo gemello? Nel libro appena citato c’è una descrizione del mondo accademico particolareggiata, la dinamica dei personaggi è chiara, il lettore riesce ad appassionarsi ai temi trattati... qui nulla di tutto questo. Mancano i dettagli fondamentali per far sì che questa storia non sia qualcosa di già visto o di già scritto. Ecco, mi è sembrato che la storia fosse già stata letta/vista: in fondo è un suspense blando, perché tanto si sa che tutto andrà bene. Ci sono, verso la fine, un paio di cose che non immaginavo, ma stonano con tutto il resto. Niente, leggerò sicuramente altro di Follett, che scrive bene, però questo è un no gigante.

Such a disappointment, as I gave Pillars of the earth 5 stars. This is a very bad short story, stretched forcefully to make a novel.

Time (and the filling of it) can be a trademark of an author. Some writers can’t do justice to their story unless it is spread over decennia’s or longer. A majority of the works of James Michener fall under this category. Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and World Without End also weaves a tale over generations. Whiteout is on the opposite end of this spectrum. The story is played out in a three-day period. The Christmas holidays and a freak Scottish snowstorm add to the mix. Follett proves his ability once again in making a page-turning thriller that the reader lives by the minutes and hours instead of months and years.
Anything having to do with deadly viruses is bound to catch the reader’s imagination (although it has been extensively exploited by a variety of authors). Follett takes another angle and leaves the reader on the edge of their seats. His characters are memorable and, in my opinion, true to life. The story’s concept still leaves me with chills as to its potential implications to our daily lives. The need to research potentially fatal viruses goes without saying but the thought of these viruses in any institution (no matter how secure) could cause me sleepless nights.
I gave the book three stars as it proved a fast paced, well written and interesting book. On the down side, I found it sometimes hard to believe. With instant and mobile communication a keystone in our 21st Century way of life, the difficulties presented in the book seemed to me highly unlikely. Another strain on my common sense is the relative passive actions of the story’s villains. I doubt they would have acted as they did…..but there again, if they hadn’t the ending would have been much different.

Não é assim tão comum avaliar um livro com cinco estrelas mas este merece essa classificação, sem dúvida. Ken Follett tornou-se agora num dos melhores escritores cujas obras eu tive oportunidade de ler. Ele não exagera nas descrições e aponta apenas os pormenores importantes, não comete o erro de se tornar demasiado científico quando a obra não necessita e utiliza os diálogos para expressar as personagens como pessoas normais, como nós, sem cair na tentação de se tornar demasiado literário e fora da realidade.
A história é interessante e, no final de cada capítulo, dá sempre vontade de ler mais e mais. Gostei da forma como ele incorporou toda a dinâmica de uma família comum no centro de um crime, neste caso, de um assalto. Além disso, conseguiu incluir os mais básicos sentimentos humanos, como o amor e toda a dúvida que dele surge. Em 24 horas, a corajosa Toni Gallo lida com um possível fracasso profissional e uma possível desilusão amorosa, mantendo-se, no entanto, sempre no seu melhor tanto no trabalho como na vida pessoal.
Kit Oxenford é, inicialmente, o grande vilão da história mas, no final, não consegui deixar de ter pena dele porque ele olhava à sua volta e parecia que não tinha mais razão para viver, porque a família o iria odiar, a polícia andaria atrás dele, tudo parecia correr mal. Mas quando o pai quase se sacrificou para salvar a sua vida, tudo mudou. Um pequeno gesto trouxe-o de volta à realidade e à família, que o apoiou mesmo depois deste ter cometido tamanha traição.
Bem, veremos qual será o próximo livro de Ken Follett que me vai deixar tão deliciada como este!

There's a missing canister of a deadly virus, something that potentially causes the infected to suffer bleeding from basically all parts of his body. Stanley Oxenford owns a small pharmaceutical company that also investigates deadly viruses. Toni Gallo, a former officer of the law and now the security director of a medical research firm must act upon this deadly biohazard anomaly, before everyone else dies on Christmas Day.

It is important to note that this novel was written in 2003 where bio-terrorism was something that baffled scientists all over the world. The storyline might have sounded a bit of a stretch at that time but I liked that the main characters weren't the typical man and woman engaging in romantic tryst. Nope, there was a wide age gap between Stanley and Toni, (30 years age difference) and they're both imperfect. Their families got tangled in a deadly situation and the mystery behind the missing virus canister was certainly unexpected.

I must admit, I found the central plot of this book, quite interesting and even potential to be adapted to film, however, it lacked the wow factor that can make me say, "this was real page turner." There was nothing like when I perused this book, maybe because Follett tried to introduce a romantic-comic scene in the middle part of the book, but failed miserably.

Anyway, my reaction might be a little awkward, given that I have loved Follett's previous thriller books. I still think Follett weaves believable fictional characters and truly remarkable plots that would make you crave for more. I am a big fan of his Pillars of The Earth novel and had admired his writing ever since. This one (Whiteout) however, fell short on my expectation. But hey, maybe it's just me.

FYI: Whiteout (the movie) is not the same with this book that Ken Follet wrote. It's a completely different story.. Whiteout which starred Kate Beckinsale is written by another author, Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber..

Um enredo fascinante e diferente do habitual ao autor. Aconselho vivamente

WOW.
È il tipico libro che non si deve giudicare dalla copertina. Difficilmente Ken sbaglia un colpo.

I have come to expect too much from Follett as his Fall Of Giants was brilliant on every page. The May -December romance in this novel is awkward and the puppy love romance is frankly disgusting.
However, it still is Follette and written in 2004 about a virus that can kill millions (sound familiar), the overall plot is still exciting.

Oxenford Medical is a high-security pharmaceutical-research company in Scotland that has developed a new drug to act upon an amazingly deadly virus. But on a certain Christmas Eve, Antonia (Toni) Gallo, head of Oxenford Medical's security team notices a breach in security: samples of the drug are missing and a lab technician is nowhere to be found. When the said technician is finally found at his house, he is bleeding from every pore -- he has been infected with the virus and Stanley Oxenford, owner of the research facility and developer of the drug, is in danger of losing everything he has worked in. Then his son, Kit, full of debts, decides to steal from Stanley and teams up with a gang of thugs. He thinks their aim is to steal the anti-viral drug, but after breaking in into Oxenford Medical, Kit realizes that the truth is worst than he thought: they are actually stealing the virus. And so it starts a complete nightmare that is increased by an unexpected blizzard whipping out the north. Things can only go very wrong, but Toni is decided to prove herself worthy and is willing to do anything to catch the criminals.

Whiteout is certainly a very good thriller. At least had the power to keep me glued to it. It may not be perfect, but it is certainly a nail-biting story (I don't bite mine, but you get the feeling). It is a story where a lot of things go wrong. For the thugs, but also for Toni and the Oxenford clan, who find themselves in the whole unhappy situation. Basically, when someone thinks he or she has found a way out of the dreadful situation, there is a twist of some kind and said person is back at square one. This happens for the entire story, especially as the thieves are trying to get away with the stolen virus. Which ends up being fine, since it just increases the whole frustrating feeling (the nail-biting effect thing) and makes this book a surprising page-turner.

As for the characters, Toni Gallo was fine. She reminded me of Jeannie Ferrami from The Third Twin, in personality and because both have sisters with families of their own and mothers with some sort of dementia. Her feelings for her boss, Stanley Oxenford, were a bit weird and she had the tendency for behaving a little foolishly. She is headstrong and has difficulties keeping her mouth shut. Especially with her ex, Superintendent Frank Hackett, a truly despicable man, who enjoys telling Toni 'no' -- I think he would even let the lab thieves escape with the virus to France just to make Toni angry. Talking about pricks, then we have Kit Oxenford, who is just plain mean and is a child in an adult body. He is mad at his father because Stanley refused to pay the money Kit owed. For the second time. So he decides to get his revenge. Only leading to the terrible situation this story tells. He doesn't even have second thoughts when he betrays his sister Miranda twice, the second time putting her in terrible danger. When he realizes the truth about the stolen items, he knows how dangerous it all is, but all Kit can think about is the money he is going to receive from the heist, not really considering that he may be killed when the virus is released. Kit is childish, revengful, thoughtless, mean, he is really unpleasent character and I could not prevent myself from wishing him all the bad things in the world for putting his own family into such a danger. The thugs Kit teams up with, Nigel, Elton, and Daisy, are just horrible people who have no qualms about what they're doing, especially Daisy, who is a monster, a real psycho.

I enjoyed this book. It's very exciting, very gripping, and even though I thought, at some point, that there were way too many things turning out wrong, especially for the good guys, Whiteout is a really satisfying read. And having a scientific background, is much better than The Third Twin.