Mosaic [Hardcover]

MOSAIC is a fast written, well plotted international thriller that will have you burning the midnight oil as you zip through all of the twists and turns in Ms. Lynds fine book. It's also a woman in peril story, a kind of romance and a bit of a mystery. Ms. Lynds has packed a lot of craft into MOSAIC, but that's not surprising, she's one heck of a writer and one heck of a character painter.

MOSAIC is peopled with a good gal, a good guy, lots of bad guys, one very bad gal, and one reformed bad buy. The goodies are blind concert pianist Julia Austrian and CIA analyst Sam Keeline. The baddies are: Presidential candidate Creighton Redmond, his son CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence Vince Redmond, Creighton's brothers, one who yearns for Alan Greenspan's job, the other who wants to be Secretary of Commerce, a deadly black widow type professional female assassin, a group of ex-CIA assassins called the Janitors, and a top detective in Scotland Yard. And the bad guy who wants a place in heaven is Creighton's father, ageing Lyle Redmond who made his fortune by stealing Nazi treasures after WW II. There you have the people, oh yes, I forgot to mention, Julia's mother is sister to the Redmond brothers which makes Lyle her grandfather and Vince her cousin. Lots of people, all expertly portrayed.

On stage at the Royal Albert Hall, Julia suddenly gets her sight back. After the concert her mother is killed in a mugging, Julia is spared as the mugger, Maya Stern the female assassin, believes her blind. Stern is after a package that old Lyle sent from the retirement home where his sons are keeping him prisoner so they can control his vast fortune. The package contains his journal which tells where the Redmond fortune came from, bad news for all those Redmonds who yearn for so much, especially with the election only four days away.

The shock of seeing her mother killed causes Julia to lose her sight again. However she happens to tell just the wrong Scotland Yard guy that she'd seen the assassin. Now the Redmond brothers have to decide, are their ambitions more important than their niece's life. Julia comes up the loser and they sick Stern, the Janitors and the whole CIA on a hunt for her. Fortunately she meets up with Keeline. Together, they must evade the forces allied against them, stop an election, right past wrongs and somehow survive.

Meanwhile,old Lyle escapes from that retirement home.

I know this all sounds like a lot and a lesser writer couldn't pull of a thriller of this magnitude, but Lynds is a pro who grabs her readers with the first paragraph and holds them by the scruff of the neck, refusing to let go until well after the book is finished. She gives you a lot to think about and one thing is for sure, you'll never look a presidential politics in quite the same way after you finish this book.

When your bedside clock tolls three a.m. and you're still reading Lynds'MOSAIC, you almost wish for the psychological blindness that overwhelms her engaging heroine at the worst possible moments. Then you could get some sleep. No such blessing befell me. I read, bleary-eyed, until Lynds unraveled the myriad plot twists for me. Why do plot threads of murder, blackmail, fabulous World War II treasure, political skullduggery, and an attempt to steal the Presidency of the U.S. cord themselves round a beautiful concert pianist, until they're almost a hangman's noose? You'll just have to read and find out. And did I mention romance and sex?

4 stars because Lynds was able to package the myriad of subplots into a nice neat package at the end. Very well done, but confusing in the beginning.

Protagonist Julia Austrian is a brilliant concert pianist who is mysteriously stricken with a rare psychological condition known as "conversion disorder" (explained in detail in the author's note at the conclusion of the book). She has been blind for ten years, regains her sight suddenly before a performance, only to lose it again when she witnesses her mother's brutal murder. I know this plot sounds questionable but (1) this psychological condition is very real and (2) Lynds is very talented. She makes it work beautifully without putting all of us through the wringer.

This was a terrific read. My only pet peeves...

(1) It seemed slow at the beginning. I noticed the action picked up for me about 100 or so pages into it when Julia meets Sam Keeline, a maverick CIA analyst who saves her life (in more ways than one).

(2)The many confusing subplots that are introduced in the prologue did not give me a very good first impression of this book. I felt Lynds threw too much at me at once and I was ready to put this back on the shelf for another time (I don't handle overwhelm very well!).

(3) Creighton Redmond's character seemed a bit too one-dimensional to me. His corrupted arm had a very long (Inspector Gadget-like) reach. I found it hard to believe that someone, even a politician, would act so desperately and go to such grave lengths to win an election, but hey, I suppose anything is possible...and the very talented Lynds leaves the door open to those possibilities.

Despite these personal objections, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely pick it up again to recapture some of its many spectacular moments...especially those wonderful intimate interactions between Julia and Sam, and of course, the musings of my favorite character, Lyle Redmond (who you'll have to meet for yourself..he's a real kick!).

Cris