The Coil Gale Lynds St. Martins Press $24.00 Rel: Apr 2004 Reviewed by Ali Karim

Hurrah, the international thriller is back with a vengeance with this taut tale of espionage and intrigue penned by the late Robert Ludlum’s writing partner Gayle Lynds. The Coil features her character Liz Sansborough, a former CIA covert operative, now university professor who finds her quiet life in Santa Barbara shattered when her look-alike cousin Sarah is kidnapped in Paris and soon bodies start littering the landscape like confetti. It seems that the kidnappers want to establish a link with Liz’s father, the notorious cold-war assassin ‘The Carnivore’. Something lurks in the files that detailed ‘The Carnivore’s’ activities but Liz soon realizes that she can trust no one especially the group who will stop at nothing for her dead fathers files. Of course, the files might not exist? I smiled when the British Secret Service in the guise of operative Simon Childs intervenes as The Coil harkens back to a previous era, when the international thriller was king and British spies littered the genre. The British sections are vivid, and I noticed that Lynds has done her homework with the changes in MI6 being right up to date.

The Coil has plot twists that will your make your head spin like Linda Blair, authentic locations, and action set-pieces which all propel this complex plot forward as if on amphetamines. But most critically, there is a feel of authenticity (that can only come from someone in the know) that makes this little tale come to life. This is one thriller that really thrills. The humour is deft and welcome to ease the frantic pace which at times is perhaps a little too ‘full-on’; never-the-less this is a book that will make you want more such is the adrenaline-pumping style of the prose. If you need more after this book, check out ‘Masquerade’ recently re-issued and featuring the debut of Liz Sansborough. Lynds is a writer not to be missed, and for those missing their dose of Ludlum, The Coil is for you.