Bad Twin

"Denial was a powerful thing, and it was hard even to imagine the difficulty and pain of acknowledging that one's own twin, one's own genetic double, had murder on his mind."

When I first saw the cover for this book, my first thought was that we were finally going to get the goods on Jacob and The Man in Black. The story is about a pair of twins, just not those twins. Islands are involved, just not The Island. In fact, it's a story that has absolutely not one thing to do with the plot or characters of the LOST tv show. There are few shout-outs to the fans: a mention of Oceanic Airlines, a few Widmores in the cast of characters, but nothing of substance. So if you're halfway through the series and are worried about learning something show more vital or getting ahead of the timeline by reading this book.... relax. It's completely standalone.

Now that we have that out of the way, why should a LOST fan read it? Why should anyone spend a few hours invested in it? Because it's a pretty entertaining mystery! It has a classic sensibility to it, like The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep. Not that it has the dialogue or the language of a hardboiled novel, don't get that impression, but it has that same feeling. A struggling P.I., an elusive case, a femme fatale and plenty of bodies.

As a LOST fan it left me disappointed. As a mystery reader, I really enjoyed it. show less

This was my second time reading through this one and I think it's a perfectly fun, serviceable mystery. I'm not sure why so many reviewers seem to find so much fault with it.

Of course, part of that might be that they misunderstood the purpose of the book. It was never meant to reveal secret knowledge about anything going on in Lost. It was merely meant to be the manuscript that Sawyer finds amongst the wreckage (the author, Gary Troup, having been sucked into the plane's engine in the first episode) and reads until Jack tosses the whole thing in the fire. Of course, I also understand that it is supposed to have some connection to the Lost ARG, but I didn't really follow that. I just thought it was a cool idea to release the final show more manuscript by Oceanic 815 passenger Gary Troup as part of the Lost experience.

This is a fun read, and it's peppered with names from Lost and the Lost ARG, but it's clear that names like Widmore were just used by Troup as a popular rich, business family name (like a writer in our world might use Vanderbilt), because the Widmores in the world of Lost are of UK origin, not US. Perhaps Troup based his Widmores on some American branch of the same family, perhaps not, but that's going beyond the purpose of the story.

Also, if you look at the events of the novel in a more allegorical sense, there's actually quite a bit revealed for what came after this book was originally released. Especially on the nature of good and evil. It's possible, and this is just my theory of course, that Jacob had a small, but significant guiding hand in Troup's writing of Bad Twin. I mean, he was brought to the island, even if he didn't last that long. show less

As long as you don't go into reading BAD TWIN thinking you're going to solve the mysteries of the hit television show Lost, then you should be okay. BAD TWIN, on its own, is an intriguing mystery featuring twin brothers--one a bigwig in the family business, the other a ne're-do-well who has gone missing.

Oh, sure, there are a few references in the actual storyline to make you go "hmmm"--the philosopher John Locke, a trip to Australia aboard an Oceanic flight, the totally hyped numbers showing up as the twin's birthday, and the family name of Widmore. But besides those few basic tidbits, this book won't tell you squat. It really has nothing to do with Lost.

On its own merits, though, it's an engaging mystery that I read in one day, and if show more Gary Troup was an actual person (which he isn't), and had actually written anything else besides BAD TWIN (which he hasn't), I wouldn't hesitate to read it. show less

So overall, I thought this book was really fun. I am a huge fan of the show Lost and this book is supposed to be the lost manuscript that Sawyer ends up reading. There are some really fun Lost Easter Eggs sprinkled throughout the text, which was really entertaining. I really love that they weren't forced either. The seamless inserts just worked and I really appreciated that. I also love that my home town was mentioned, which does not happen very often so that was a pleasant surprise! The story itself was very much your classic noir/mystery, but it did keep me guessing for some of it. I lost a little bit of interest in the middle of the story and I felt that the character of Pru was added just a little bit too late in the story, but this show more was a fun and entertaining read. If there wasn't the connection to Lost, I might not have picked it up, but if you have ever watched the show, I recommend it. show less

Paul Artisan is a private detective in California, where the cases he receives are mostly petty disputes and insurance fraud. But when Cliff Widmore appears and asks him to find his twin, Artisan knows this case won't be like the others he's had before. He's not sure who to trust or which is really the "bad" twin. The book itself is the "manuscript" that Hurley and Sawyer read in Season 2 of Lost, written by author "Gary Troup" who died in the plane crash. Other connections include the Hanso Foundation (located on floor 42 of the Widmore Building), repetition of the numbers, and a comment about the Paik's business.

This is one of those rare books that I finished thinking, "I could've written better than that." Granted, it had a show more compelling story and characters, but the writing was full of misplaced adjectives and jarring similes. For example: "The sloop--a good size, maybe forty feet, a third of a million dollars' worth of fiberglass and teak with the name Escape Hatch etched into the transom--was lifted in a giant wooden cradle in the hanger-like shed of Hap's Marina; there was something rude and almost obscene about the sight of the boat's raised, bare bottom, its stiff keel stabbing downward like the penis of an excited whale" (53). After that, I didn't read the descriptions to closely, but even then the story structure was somewhat unbelievable to the end. Not recommended. show less

"Bad Twin" is an extension to "The Lost Experience," an alternate-reality game intended to keep the rabid viewers of "Lost" busy during the long summer when there are no new episodes. It was supposedly written by Gary Troup, who was one of the "victims" of Oceanic Flight 815. About the only thing I could glean from the book that related to Lost was a bit of background on the Widmores. While the book is "metafiction," that is, fiction within fiction, the book is supposedly based on some real things, like the Hanso Foundation (to the fictional Lost people, are you confused yet?).
At any rate, I sped through the short 250 pages of "Bad Twin" in less than a week. It's an entertaining read, a classic mystery tale of greed and deception. I show more enjoyed it, regardless of any tie to the TV show, though fans will probably enjoy it more than non-fans.
Oh, and allow me to put to rest any inklings that Stephen King is the ghost writer of this book. In my opinion, he most definitely is not. The writing style just wasn't consistent to me. In addition, the settings of the book are completely unfamiliar to Mr. King. In an interview about his recent release, Cell, he admitted that he wanted to set the beginning of that book in New York City, but decided on Boston because he didn't know enough about New York's geography, etc, for it to be realistic. With "Bad Twin" being primarily set in New York City, Long Island, Florida, and Australia, with some good details about each place (even if they were fictional hotels, etc), I highly doubt King wrote this, even with him being a fan of the show. More likely is James Patterson, who seems to have a stronger link. show less

The author was on doomed Oceanic flight 815. Suspicious as this book centers around the Widmore twins, isn't it? And poor Sawyer will never get to find out the end, since Locke burned the final pages of the manuscript Troup had on the flight. I was disappointed not to find out more about Hanso, since they've condemned him and the book so loudly. Perhaps I'll have to check out the Hanso site again.