MWSA Book Review

The Last Spymaster

Author:  Gayle Lynds

Publisher:  St Martins Press

Reviewer: Bill McDonald – President of the MWSA

Author Lynds has become an icon!

There comes a time when the disciple becomes their very own a master – that has now taken place for author Gayle Lynds. She has co-authored some great books with the old spymaster writer himself, the late Robert Ludlum; but her newest book offering even surpasses her own standout individual creations “Masquerade,” “Memorized,” “Mosaic” and even her very popular “The Coil.” “The Last Spymaster” is the crowning creative achievement to this writer’s career that was already successful both in sales and critical acclaim.

Lynds uses the English language like an artist’s brush to paint visions of her thoughts and ideas with just the right words and phrasing. Her writing technique of story telling is becoming her own signature of high-testosterone suspense. She is a one-of-a-kind author who is now, not just known as the best female author of spy thrillers, but THE BEST AUTHOR OF SPY THRILLERS.

“The Last Spymaster” is a must read page turner. It is high octane energy and action packed with great characters and enough twists and turns to make all fans of spy genre stories feel more than satisfied. This is another of her books that cries out for a movie version. The reader will be able to follow the flow of action and energy; it is a great reading adventure!

This book receives the MWSA’s highest Book Rating of Five Stars!

I also give this book my personal recommendation and endorsement!

MWSA's 2006 Novel of the Year

Reviewer: Jeff Edwards – MWSA Review Board

A Machiavellian Masterpiece!

In the waning years of the Cold War, Jay Tice was the undisputed master of black operations. At the top of his game and the top of the CIA’s Operations Directorate, he was the most cunning operative in the intelligence world. He was also a traitor. From his trusted position in the heart of the American Intelligence Community, he fed classified information to the enemies of the United States, undermining the security of the very nation he had sworn to defend. When an investigation revealed the depth of his treason, he was stripped of his position and sentenced to life in federal prison.

But guards and steel bars cannot contain a man who lives like a shadow. Tice engineers a baffling prison break, and vanishes into the murky world of covert operatives. It’s up to CIA hunter Elaine Cunningham to track him down before he can execute whatever plan he’s hatched inside his lethally treacherous mind. Plagued by anger and self-doubt since her own husband was killed by terrorists, Elaine is damaged goods in the eyes of her fellow agents. Despite her rocky performance, her superiors think she’s perfect for this mission. Because Elaine Cunningham has nothing to lose.

The Last Spymaster ricochets like a bullet between the Cold War espionage and twenty first century terrorism. Lock and load, check over both shoulders, and make sure you don’t leave any fingerprints.

Reviewer: Bonnie Toews – MWSA Member

Action-Packed Masterpiece of Intrigue

In THE LAST SPYMASTER, Gayle Lynds’ riveting suspense embedded with literary finesse eclipses thriller stars John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum at the peak of their form. Unlike Le Carre’s exhaustive angst and Ludlum’s lengthy detours into topics or causes that fascinated him, Gayle’s economy of language makes her political point without wasting a word while engaging the readers’ eyes, ears, nose and heart.

Sprinkled throughout are awesome examples of:

ALLITERATION – Dense forests flowed dark; as the dark night deepened toward dawn; footsteps echoing in the emptiness;

SIMILES – she seemed to shrink, grow calcified, as hard as a tombstone;

METAPHORS – bolts of silver lightning speared the distant Alps;

IMAGERY – she found a slot in which to wedge the Jag; sunlight filtered down in strawlike rays;

and POETIC RHYTHMS – His family. But not his family. A charade, a farce, a travesty of the living and the dead. His eyes felt hollow.

Such literary devices are what writing groups and English professors can use as models of powerful literature, but if readers miss them, it is because they are stitched in seamlessly.

THE LAST SPYMASTER is a classic because no one element or technique stands out over another – the sum of the parts makes it one great read and Gayle’s best work. She gives us superb storytelling at supersonic speed and sets the bar, not only for her own future novels but also for every other author in the thriller genre. In character development, for instance, individual idiosyncrasies that distinguish her previous heroines in ‘Masquerade’ (Asperger’s syndrome), ‘Mesmerized’ (cellular memory), ‘Mosaic’ (conversion disorder) and ‘The Coil’ (a peacenik aversion to violence) make way for broader scope. This time she tackles the universal flaws of globalization within today’s political framework in her portrayal of power brokers – whether greedy or altruistic – competing in the war on terrorism.

Jay Tice, one of the legendary chiefs of the CIA in the Cold War, is a turncoat. Convicted of selling secrets, he’s languishing in the formidable Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex in Pennsylvania, when he suddenly disappears. His locked cell is empty. Current CIA Deputy Chief Lawrence Litchfield engages a top CIA hunter, Elaine Cunningham, to track him down. She’s a woman with her own psychological baggage, but gifted in probing the psyches of her prey. As she zeroes in on Tice, she becomes his target, and discovers nothing is as it seems. Instead, she finds, in the clandestine world of black ops, there are illegal arms dealers, information traders and cover-ups far more dangerous to the free world than one man’s treachery. She joins forces with Tice to hunt down the real traitor before terrorists take possession of a shipment of top-secret, cutting-edge technology that can destroy automated intelligence networks worldwide and throw the ‘infidels’ into chaos.

Using her characters’ perspectives and personal agendas, Gayle masterminds a maze of crossover subplots and merges them on the final ramp of “the last spymaster’s” odyssey. Also weaving through the maze is a classic love tale between Tice and his former double agent from the East, Raina Manhardt. They are lovers who are sadly doomed yet deeply passionate without being sexually explicit. That’s art. And in addition to compelling storytelling, the ultra ‘smart’ inventions and security technologies Gayle introduces make Orwell’s vision of the future seem primitive.

Against such a backdrop of global conspiracy, I looked for cynicism or disillusionment seeping into her writing, because the more we learn the more we see how much our governments lie to us. Instead, with a keen journalist’s nose for truth, she relentlessly sniffs out the corruptive realities existing inside the covert catacombs of international intelligence, while keeping her eye on the ultimate sacrifices and dedication of those who serve to protect us.

As Gayle explains in a Question and Answer dialogue with readers, “Holding on to one’s ideals while working for a better world is the most difficult personal challenge. Those who succeed against such odds are the stuff of quiet legend, occasionally receiving secret honors and awards, and living out their days without telling tales . . . They pay high prices personally, and they deserve our respect.”

THE LAST SPYMASTER chronicles such hope in a ‘tour de force’ that catapults Gayle Lynds to the top of the thriller genre. As a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Operatives, the Military Writers Society of America and co-founder/co-president of the International Thriller Writers, Inc., she can be proud of the brilliant work she has delivered to represent their high ideals of service.