Somewhere in Scotland around Christmas time, Whiteout opens in a boutique pharmaceutical research lab founded by Stanley Oxenford. He has risked his entire net worth to develop an anti-viral drug. The research centers on the strain Madoba-2 which appears to be a more virulent form of Ebola.

Toni Gallo, a disgraced former policewoman in charge of security, has discovered several vials of the serum missing and is tracing everyone who has access to that security level. She finds the employee who had taken the vials as he is dying in a particularly gory fashion. This catapults the company into the headlines.

Meanwhile, the son of the founder Kit Oxenford is plotting to steal the anti-viral serum. Toni had caught him stealing funds from the company, his father fired him and his gambling habit became serious. He is apparently auctioning the serum; Kit believes the theft will be no more than his father deserves.

Follett’s characters represent the extreme. He runs the gambit from unscrupulous newspaperman, vindictive imbecilic police detective, psychopathic daughter of a cruel mobster, gutless lover, Casanovian lover, befuddled mother, bratty child, etc. What one may count on is that most of these characters are drawn around a single extreme idea or quality. With the exception of the character of Toni Gallo, they all lack complexity or subtly, and because of that their actions and dialogue become much too predictable.

As the storm worsens and whiteout occurs, Oxenford’s extended family arrives at their manor home. The storm interferes with Kit’s plot to rob the laboratory but he pushes forward. Instead of stealing the anti-viral serum, Kit realizes that his criminal cohorts have stolen the canister of the virus itself. In too far to get out, he joins them in their journey to the landing strip where the buyers for the virus plan to meet them, The whiteout worsens and travel becomes impossible.

The story climaxes with many individuals coming together, trapped by the storm, and fighting for the stolen material. A fairly large cast of one dimensional characters, loaded with drama in a race against the clock framework does not elevate Whiteout to one of Follett’s best.

--Thea Davis