"Fast-paced international espionage thriller is Lynds at her best."

Liz Sansborough, whose dead father was the infamous assassin called the Carnivore, has built a new life for herself after leaving the CIA as a field agent. She leads a quiet life in Southern California as a college professor, using her knowledge to teach the psychology of violence. She's now so opposed to violence that she won't even touch a weapon.

Then Liz is almost killed in an attack. At the same time, her cousin, Sarah, is kidnapped in Paris, and Sarah's husband, Asher Flores, is badly wounded.

Enter CIA agent Simon Childs, but can he be trusted to help or hinder the volatile situation? Liz knows that she's the only one who can rescue Sarah by finding her dead father's long-lost files and turning them over to the kidnappers. Those secret files are said to contain the type of information that can topple governments, and the clandestine organization called the Coil will do anything to get them. But nothing is as it seems, causing more problems than anyone ever imagined.

This fast-paced international espionage thriller, a sequel to MASQUERADE, is Lynds at her best. With an abundance of surprising twists and turns, smart and savvy writing, as well as mysterious and compelling characters, it kept me riveted to the end. A great read!

Reviewed by Tanzey Cutter
Courtesy Old Book Barn Gazette
Posted March 10, 2004

Summary

Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field agent as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin, the man known to the world only as The Carnivore, Liz is now a university professor in Southern California specializing in the psychology of violence. But her dead father's legacy has come back to overtake Liz. Someone, somewhere is claiming to have possession of the Carnivore's secret files and is using the information contained within them to blackmail prominent world figures to promote some secret agenda. Files that Liz swore her father never kept. First Liz herself is attacked and almost killed, then Liz's cousin Sarah Walker is kidnapped in Paris and her husband, CIA agent Asher Flores, is gravely wounded. The only ransom the kidnappers will accept is the Carnivore's files. Now if Liz is to save Sarah, she must somehow resurrect her old tradecraft skills and, in a desperate hunt across two continents, locate the files and uncover a dark and dangerous conspiracy linked to a shadowy group known only as the Coil. With her bestselling thriller Masquerade, Gayle Lynds earned her reputation as one of the most exciting new writers of international suspense. Now with The Coil, the sequel to Masquerade, Gayle Lynds is at the very top of her form, proving herself one of the finest writers in the field today.