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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
She is Running for Her Life, Better Not Get in the Way, 2 May 2004
I checked this book out from the library yesterday and to my surprise this old guy who worked there told me it was one of his favorite books, that he'd read it several times."What's it like?" I asked. "Sort of a cross between THE BOURNE IDENTITY and SEE JANE RUN, if you know what I mean." I did indeed know what he meant. Jason Bourne (who probably everybody knows about now because of the hugely successful movie) and Jane Whittaker are two of my all time favorite characters from two of my all time favorite books. To be compared with Robert Ludlum (who Ms. Lynds would later write with) and Joy Fielding is an honor of the first order, but it also sets up high expectations. After that kind of billing I was ready for a rock 'em, sock 'em thriller that would leave me bleary-eyed as I stumbled into bed at two in the morning. I'm hear to tell you I was not disappointed, though I was not bleary-eyed, because this book kept me on the edge of the sofa and on the edge of reality all night long as my fingers blistered through the pages. When I'd finished my adrenaline was pumping, my eyes were wide open and I'd bitten off a couple nails. It was as if I'd had a dozen cups of coffee without anything to eat. So what was it about this five star book that got and kept me so excited? A whole lotta stuff. Every time I thought I had a handle on where it was going, the story twisted down the least expected of paths, pulling me along like a fish in the line. Yes, I'm a sucker for a strong female protagonist, I'm also a sucker for a good story and you get both here, but you get so much more, like turncoat bad guys that get you so emotionally involved that you'd like to squash them like a bug, like a bad guy turned good over love who winds up dead of account of it and, after you've wiped away the tears, you gasp in horror at what happens to his lover. You get to see a rummy drunk, who'd been beaten down over the years by a despicable husband, overcome her addiction, throw her shoulders back and save the day. You get to see justice and you get to smile as our heroine squashes some of those bugs. But there is still more. This is a story about a young woman who wakes one morning not knowing who she is, ala Jason Bourne and Jane Whittaker, but because it's about a woman who is apparently suffering from amnesia, please don't think it's a clichéd story, because it's not. As I said above, this story, Liz Sansborough and Sarah Walker's story, will take you to the most unexpected places, get your blood running, your pulse racing and your adrenaline rushing as you read the night away to an exciting, thrilling and fulfilling climax. And then you'll what to do just what I'm going to do, you'll want to go out, get and read MOSAIC, the Gayle Lynds book that comes after MASQUERADE. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enough Action and Adventure for Ten Normal Books, 7 Jan 2008
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 sheï¿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 heï¿d been working for and who heï¿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 theyï¿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 youï¿re already half way into the turn before you discover youï¿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 havenï¿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, ï¿Youï¿ve missed a treat.ï¿ 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. Iï¿m surprised the CIA allowed this book to be published, itï¿s that good.
Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Thriller Written by a Super Writer, 5 Mar 2009
Masquerade opens with Liz Sanborough dazed and confused. She can't remember her furniture, where did she get Danish Modern. She can't remember her boyfriend, wonderful caring Gordon Tate, who keeps giving her pills. She can't remember anything at all. Then with Gordon's help pieces of her memory start coming back, little things, but before she can get too comfortable two men break into her Santa Barbara home, guns blazing. Gordon tosses her a gun, Liz shoots to kill. Where did she learn how to do that?
Later, in a CIA safe house, Gordon explains to her that she's a CIA agent. That she's had an accident that caused brain fever then amnesia. He tells her she's in danger because she's the only one to ever have seen the international assassin who calls himself the Carnivore and lived. Now he wants to kill her. Gordon tells her that the CIA needs her, she's important to her government. Will she help catch this killer?
She agrees, though she has her doubts. The CIA sends her to Colorado to get her skills back in a CIA training camp, but it's more than skills she's getting, because she secretly stops taking the pills the doctor said she needed to get well and all of a sudden she gets flashes of another life, not the one painted for her by Gordon and the CIA. She sneaks a peak at their computer, finds out the CIA guys had been lying to her all along and with the help of the camp honcho, Asher Flores, she breaks out of there and they become CIA public enemies number One and Two.
Much chasing, much shooting, many twists and turns in this delightful novel that I'm glad to say was written by a woman. Who says women can't write international spy thrillers? Just tell them to pick up MASQUERADE and give it a try. They won't be able to put it down, I can guarantee you that! And Ms. Lynds has obviously done her homework. I loved the way our fugitives, Liz and Asher, got to Europe, then Paris, but every step of the way, no matter how hard they try to elude their captures, they are always there. Betrayal, it seems, is the order of the day if enough money is on the table. And the CIA wants Liz for a horrible plot that will eventually end up with her death and money is no object. There is just nobody she and Asher can turn to without them doing a Benedict Arnold.
I could gush on for three or four more paragraphs, but I'll stop here, because if you haven't got the picture that I loved this book by now, you're pretty hopeless. Five stars from me for MASQUERADE.
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by Gayle Lynds
by Gayle Lynds
by Stella Rimington
by Gayle Lynds
by Stella Rimington
