in Fiction

Richard Aellen. Redeye. 1988.

Journalist Paul Stafford has been having nightmares in which he commits murder. But when the CIA shows up at his door and his mother makes a confession, he starts suspecting the source of his dreams: the twin brother who was supposedly killed is not dead after all, but is communicating telepathically.

Benjamin Anastas. An Underachiever’s Diary. 1998.

Of two brothers born in 1965 to suburban Massachusetts parents, one twin is destined to success, the other to chronic failure. Though ill-fated William beat Clive into the world by 7 minutes, it’s all downhill from there. Filled with hilarious scenes of equal opportunity gone wrong, with each of Clive’s triumphs countered with William’s dismal pratfalls, this is a fun read.

Lisa Carey. In The Country Of The Young. 2000.

Oisin MacDara inherited the art of superstition, and every year on Halloween he hopes his beloved long-dead twin sister, Nieve, will return to him. But instead, Aisling arrives, a child in rags who was a passenger on an Irish immigrant ship that sank nearby over 100 years ago. We go back in time to Aisling’s story in Ireland during the potato famine and Oisin’s childhood as well.

David Eddings. Regina’s Song. 2002.

Identical twins Regina and Renata are so alike that even their mother can’t tell them apart. One of the twins is brutally murdered and the other, seemingly Renata, is deeply traumatized. Then a series of gruesome murders of sex offenders points to Renata and it is up to family friend and amateur sleuth Mark Austin to sort things out.

Ken Follett. The Third Twin. 1996.

Jeannie Ferrami is a professor who is investigating the balance of nature versus nurture in criminality. She is excited when she meets a straight-arrow law student who has an identical twin (raised separately) who is a convicted rapist. During the course of her research, Jeannie stumbles upon a secret government project to breed the perfect soldier and she becomes embroiled in suspicion, intrigue, and danger.

Frances Fyfield. Staring At the Light. 1998.

Jim Beckett was everything she had ever dreamed of. But two years after Tess married the decorated cop and bore his child, she helped put him behind bars for savagely murdering ten women. Even locked up in a maximum-security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the killer has escaped and the most dangerous game of all begins.

Julian Gough. Juno And Juliet. 2001.

Clever, engaging story of identical twins Juno and Juliet Taylor in their first year of college in Ireland. Juno has an erratic artist for a boyfriend and is stalked by a pervert who sends anonymous letters. And Juliet is in love with her grad-student tutor who is concerned about their age difference. A hilarious and tender romp with two sisters whose love and devotion are infectious.

Evan Hunter. The Moment She Was Gone. 2002.

When Andy Gulliver’s phone rings in the middle of the night, it usually means that his wandering twin Annie is gone again. She has been disappearing regularly since her adolescence, sending an occasional postcard from far-flung places, offering reassurance to Andy and their mother that there’s nothing really wrong with her. A story about denial and enabling done by a family with a mentally ill member in its midst.

Compiled by Karen F. Barron 9/01