Rating: 
Summary: Agents working for themselves
Review: In the intelligence business, you can't trust anyone, particularly people you are working for. In this novel, there is a lot of double dealing and, in some cases, the people don't always know who they are dealing with.A group of people handling large sums of untraceable money find they can siphon some off into their own accounts, and use their assets to give themselves an edge in business dealings. People are assassinated for the convenience of the agents, and various crimes (including murder) are committed in the United States. A senior official in the CIA uses his position to recruit homicidal people with no morals who will follow his directions without question. A trail of dead bodies are left strewn about the landscape. Some people are elimated because they know to much, and some just get in the way. An international assassin wants to come in from the cold. He makes the mistake of contacting U.S. intelligence. Some people want to offer immunity in exchange for what he knows, but other people want him dead because he knows secrets they want to keep buried. He might disrupt the plans of a person preparing to make a large financial killing, a person prepared to eliminate confederates and subordinates in order to cover his tracks. Some elements of the plot have been used before, e.g., drugging someone to make them follow your commands, but overall the plot is very original and has some interesting action and some twists in the tale. It is difficult to put the book down as you follow the story to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Dynamite, fresh ... you've got to read this book!
Review: In the scheme of things, I want a book to excite me, teach me, and when it's all over, make me want to read it again, because it's that good. Masquerade is all of that and more. In fact, when I read that this was Lynds' first novel, I was surprised. The writing is rich and crisp and innovative - very different from Robert Ludlum's work. She sets a high standard. The plot was a triumph. I could repeat it here, but Amazon gave a good general description, so just let me say that it does what it's supposed to do --- moves at a ballistic pace, and it's full of surprises that even a long-time thriller junkie like me could not guess. However, what put it at the top of the form was the freshness of the characters. These are not cardboard characters. Somehow Lynds has managed to create evil in the midst of humanity in such a chilling way that you believe every word. The first chapter is probably the best opening chapter to a thriller that I've ever read. The ending wrapped everything up in one of those explosive, exciting moments where the whole story --- which you think you've got figured out --- comes together in a brand-new way that alternately has you kicking yourself because it was all there and you STILL didn't figure it out, and clapping and shouting bravo. This book lingers in my mind. There's something haunting about it and the important political issues it raises. I was talking to a librarian, who told me it is one of his top 5 all-time-favorite books. I have to say that's true for me, too. The opening to her new book, The Coil, is at the end of Masquerade. It's the sequel to Masquerade. You can bet I'm planning to buy it as soon as it's available.
Rating:
Summary: Spies, Lies, Twists and Double Crosses, Plenty Action Too!
Review: Is she a rogue CIA agent or an innocent reporter? Is she Liz or is she Sarah? Why doesn't she remember her furniture, her crooked finger, her lover? What is wrong with her? Amnesia caused by brain fever as a result of an accident, or is it something more, something to do with the pills she's being fed everyday? These are the questions Liz Sansborough has to find the answers to if she's going to survive. When she wakes without her memory, Gordon Tate, her lover, tells her about an accident and the amnesia. He feeds her a pill, tells her it's an antidepressant. He tells her she's going to be better soon. Just as she starts to feel safe and thinks maybe she really will get her memory back, two men break into her home, guns blazing. Suddenly Gordon has a gun and he's shooting. He tosses her a gun too and to her amazement and horror, it feels familiar and all of a sudden she's shooting as well. She kills one of the intruders just as more men break in. Good guys this time it seems. They take her to a safe house and then fill her in on her memory blanks. They tell her she's a CIA agent and the only living person who had ever seen the face of the international assassin the Carnivore and, because of that, the assassin is determined to see her dead. She is confused. The CIA tells her they will protect her and they send her to the Ranch in Colorado, a CIA field agent training school, to hone up the skills she can no longer remember. However during the training she secretly stops taking the antidepressants and gradually other memories, memories that shouldn't belong to her, sneak into her mind, causing doubt after doubt. She voices these doubts to Gordon and he turns mean and now Liz knows she has to get away. And that's just the beginning of this woman in peril thriller that will have you guessing as the story takes one unexpected turn after another, so many remarkable twists in the plot that you'll feel the fall as the rollercoaster races downward at the speed of light, then you'll grab a breath as it starts upward again, then a sharp turn, and still another. Big praise from me for MASQUERADE. It's an international thriller of the type that Robert Ludlum used to write fifteen years ago, full of enough spies, lies, twists and double crosses to take your breath away and to keep you glued to your chair until you finish the book. Ken Douglas, Underpaid Writer
Rating: 
Summary: Lynds takes a well used plot device and makes it her own
Review: It was interesting reading "Masquerade" after Gayle Lynds' latest novel "The Coil". What makes it interesting was that "The Coil" was the sequel "Masquerade" and followed some of the same characters that we first meet in "Masquerade". Knowing who the characters are in the second book changed how I viewed them in the first book. This knowledge actually made things more confusing because things did not at first add up. "Masquerade" marked Lynds' first steps into the international spy novel genre, and she gives us a strong, fresh entry. The idea of a character having amnesia and having to figure out who she (or he) is has been done before in the spy genre (most notably with Ludlum's "Bourne Identity"), but this is the starting point for "Masquerade". Liz Sansborough has no memory of who she was or what she did. All she knows is that a man named Gordon Taite claims to have been her lover and that Liz is a former CIA agent. Gordon claims to be trying to protect her, and he seems honest, but Liz feels that Gordon is hiding the truth from her. Can she believe him? Was she really a CIA agent? Who is she? With violence and these questions, we are jumpstarted into "Masquerade". It would not be hyperbole to say that Gayle Lynds has written a novel that feels like a race to find out who Liz Sansborough is and why these men are trying to kill/capture her. This is fast paced espionage action with a high body count, and it is an engaging novel all the way through. It seems like a simple enough story at the beginning, but as Liz learns more about who she is and why she is being hunted, the scope of the story expands in ways the reader never expected (or, in ways I never expected). Reading "The Coil" first did not lessen the impact of "Masquerade" in any way, but rather it added to the challenge of piecing together bits of the story and what I knew about the characters in "The Coil". I may not read many espionage novels, but I know an entertaining, well written story when I see one. -Joe Sherry
Rating:
Summary: Lynds takes a well used plot device and makes it her own
Review: It was interesting reading "Masquerade" after Gayle Lynds' latest novel "The Coil". What makes it interesting was that "The Coil" was the sequel "Masquerade" and followed some of the same characters that we first meet in "Masquerade". Knowing who the characters are in the second book changed how I viewed them in the first book. This knowledge actually made things more confusing because things did not at first add up. "Masquerade" marked Lynds' first steps into the international spy novel genre, and she gives us a strong, fresh entry. The idea of a character having amnesia and having to figure out who she (or he) is has been done before in the spy genre (most notably with Ludlum's "Bourne Identity"), but this is the starting point for "Masquerade". Liz Sansborough has no memory of who she was or what she did. All she knows is that a man named Gordon Taite claims to have been her lover and that Liz is a former CIA agent. Gordon claims to be trying to protect her, and he seems honest, but Liz feels that Gordon is hiding the truth from her. Can she believe him? Was she really a CIA agent? Who is she? With violence and these questions, we are jumpstarted into "Masquerade". It would not be hyperbole to say that Gayle Lynds has written a novel that feels like a race to find out who Liz Sansborough is and why these men are trying to kill/capture her. This is fast paced espionage action with a high body count, and it is an engaging novel all the way through. It seems like a simple enough story at the beginning, but as Liz learns more about who she is and why she is being hunted, the scope of the story expands in ways the reader never expected (or, in ways I never expected). Reading "The Coil" first did not lessen the impact of "Masquerade" in any way, but rather it added to the challenge of piecing together bits of the story and what I knew about the characters in "The Coil". I may not read many espionage novels, but I know an entertaining, well written story when I see one. -Joe Sherry
Rating:
Summary: Enough Action and Adventure for Ten Normal Books
Review: Liz Sansborough wakes with amnesia and her supposed boyfriend and lover Gordon Tate tells her she is an ex-agent for the CIA and that the international assassin called the Carnivore is trying to kill her because she's the only person alive who has ever seen his face. Whatever doubts she has about this are quickly wiped away when two men break into her home, shooting. Gordon tosses her a gun and she instinctively shoots and kills one of the intruders. Afterward CIA agents show up and spirit her away to a safe house, where they tell her they need her help in bringing in the Carnivore, who is seeking asylum in exchange for information on who he'd been working for and who he'd killed over the last thirty years. However at the CIA training camp called the Ranch in Colorado, where they send her to hone up her secret agent skills and trade craft, she stops taking her antidepressants, which were really memory suppressants and she starts getting strange memory flashes that cause her to question who she really is. With the help of the seemingly bumbling director of the camp, Asher Flores, she escapes to find the truth and thus begins a book long chase that will have you reading the night away. The CIA declares Liz and Asher rogue agents, tells the press they're wanted for murder and sends their best and brightest after them. Asher they want dead, Liz they need alive, because they have dastardly plans for her. It seems the CIA intends to kill the Carnivore, because he knows too much about some highly placed CIA big wigs. MASQUERADE grabs your attention from page one and keeps it long after you finish the book. There are more plot twists than you can shake a stick at and Ms. Lynds disguises them so well that you're already half way into the turn before you discover you're on a different track. I know there are those in this post 9/11 world who might pass on an international thriller written in 1996, but that would be a mistake. If you haven't read MASQUERADE, which is kind of a prequel to THE COIL coming out in April, 2004, then as Stephen King used to say about Richard Laymon, 'You've missed a treat.' There is enough action and adventure in MASQUERADE for ten normal books. Enough solid writing to keep you reading all night long. Enough spy trade craft to turn you into a secret agent. I'm surprised the CIA allowed this book to be published, it's that good. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Masquerade is absoltely awesome. It's none-stop twist and turns. It has a great pace. A "Le-Femme-Nikita" type story and character but even better.
Rating:
Summary: Masquerade is an arresting thriller with an original tone.
Review: Masquerade is an arresting thriller from stunning start to surprising finish, with more twists and turns than the Pikes Peak road race. The style is refreshingly original for the genre. Its highly unusual premise, the former CIA agent with amnesia surrounded by uncomprehended danger, was obviously ripped off by last year's film, 'The Long Kiss Goodbye.' Well done, Gayle Lynds!
Rating:
Summary: A fast-paced, action-packed international thriller.
Review: Masquerade is one of those novels that appeares to be just another example
of James-Bond era fiction. However, the reader soon discovers that while having
much of the action and excitement of one of Fleming's finest, there is quite a difference.
Masquerade is written by a woman and features a strong, intelligent, and savvy woman as its main
character. While one of these features may not be unusual in an international thriller, both
together are quite different. Lynds brings a fresh style and finesse to fiction not often seen.
Masquerade grabs your attention from the first chapter and propels you through the rest of the book.
It seems like your money is almost wasted because the book is finished in a matter of hours. One of
the most impressive aspects of masquerade is the impecible research done by the author. She has
a number of amazing gadgets in the book, all of which have their foundations in real-life
CIA/NSA type equipment. This book is well worth the time and investment. I am glad I bought it
in the US because it won't be available in England until June.
Rating:
Summary: A fast-paced, action-packed international thriller.
Review: Masquerade is one of those novels that appeares to be just another exampleof James-Bond era fiction. However, the reader soon discovers that while havingmuch of the action and excitement of one of Fleming's finest, there is quite a difference. Masquerade is written by a woman and features a strong, intelligent, and savvy woman as its main character. While one of these features may not be unusual in an international thriller, both together are quite different. Lynds brings a fresh style and finesse to fiction not often seen. Masquerade grabs your attention from the first chapter and propels you through the rest of the book. It seems like your money is almost wasted because the book is finished in a matter of hours. One of the most impressive aspects of masquerade is the impecible research done by the author. She has a number of amazing gadgets in the book, all of which have their foundations in real-life CIA/NSA type equipment. This book is well worth the time and investment. I am glad I bought it in the US because it won't be available in England until June.
| 
