Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field operative as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin — the man known to the world only as the Carnivore — Liz is now a university professor in Southern California, specializing in the psychology of violence. Then her dead father's legacy sweeps back to overtake her.

Someone, somewhere, is claiming to possess the Carnivore's secret files and is using information from them to blackmail prominent world figures to promote some clandestine agenda. Files that Liz swore her father never kept. When Liz's cousin is kidnapped, the only ransom they'll accept is the assassin's records, and if Liz is to save her cousin, she must somehow resurrect her old tradecraft skills and, in a desperate hunt across two continents, locate the files and uncover a dark and dangerous conspiracy linked to a shadowy group known only as the Coil.

Praise for THE COIL

THE COIL was named one of the Best Thrillers of 2004 by Readers Read.com, Deadly Pleasures magazine and The Mystery Bookstore Los Angeles. THE COIL was also winner of the Readers' Choice Award for 2005 from Affaire de Coeur.

Listen to THE COIL

Listen to a sample of THE COIL read by Kate Reading on BooksOnTape.com.

A note from St. Martin's Press

With her bestselling thriller MASQUERADE, Gayle Lynds earned her reputation as one of the most exciting new writers of international suspense. Now with THE COIL, the sequel to MASQUERADE, she is at the very top of her form, proving herself one of the finest writers in the field today.