I must say that I absolutely enjoyed this novel and that pleased me, because I just love it when a woman takes on men at their game and does the job just as well, or better. And I mean that in two ways. Ms. Lynds' lead character, Liz Sansbourough does a man's job, a very difficult man's job, just as well, if not better than her male counterparts, without letting any of the usual feminine frailties we usually see in thrillers get in the way. Okay, there was that bit where Liz didn't want to pick up a gun, because she was tired of all the violence in the world, but she gets over it. And then there is Ms. Lynds' novel itself. She could very easily write nice little mysteries, the kind we all know and love to read, but instead she's put herself smack in the middle of a genre that is almost universally read by men, and at a time when about seventy percent of all fiction readers are women, because it seems men are too busy with their faces buried in computer and software manuals. That takes guts.
As a bit of a feminist, I leave this book with a tough question. When my husband, an ex-cop, finished this novel his exact words were, "Honey, I loved this story, she writes just like a man." How should I have taken that? Was it a compliment? From his mouth it certainly was, because he is a longtime reader of spy and Cold War fiction, from Fleming to Ludlum. But from my point of view, well, I wanted to throttle him. However, I understand what he meant, Ms. Lynds has written an action novel that he really enjoyed and, dummy that he is, he can't admit that we women can be every bit as macho as tough guy males. By the way, the other day hubby shouted down from the shower, he needed my immediate aid. Something about a spider that needed killing.
Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne