Mosaic

Rating:
Summary: Hard-Edged Suspense
Review: After reading Gayle Lynd's "Mesmirized" and her two collaborations with Robert Ludlum, it is clear that Ludlum has taught her how to keep the pace moving and the story taut because this story dragged in places with two much information and the connections at the beginning of the book between the heroine and her corrupt family were unclear. Nevertheless, it was another action-packed thriller that kept me reading on and on into the night until I finally finished in the early light of dawn. Gayle Lynd's fascination with psychological conditions--this time hysterical blindness--and special talent provides a vulnerable heroine who is a blind concert pianist, and when she digs down, discovers how tough she can be when her mother is murdered beside her in a taxi. Up to this tragic moment, Julia has suffered blindness for ten years and has just reached such confidence and self-esteem that she can suddenly see--subconsiously she is ready to set aside the psychological trauma that set off her escape and self-punishing condition without knowing what caused it. The killer, however, thinks she is blind and spares her. The shock of watching her mother die brings on the blindness again, but this time her desire for revenge and her sense of helpless guilt drive her to see again. Through a maze of coincidences the plot unravels, and Julia discovers her family don't really want her to see again. The only person she can rely on is a renegade CIA agent who protects her from a villanous assassin. Wherever they go, a pile of bodies follow, but eventually the trail leads to Nazi loot and justice for all.

Rating:
Summary: Nonstop action and cyclone of thrills and suspense........
Review: Browsing definetly hepled me the other day in a book store....
I chanced upon "MOSAIC" and the book had me totally mesmerized.
I was travelling to my homvtown and started this book in the train itself.....my best friend was bugged but while he let me be....i just about managed to finish the book while the end of our journey.Julia Austria's battle royale with the royalty that be...and the flamboyant but tough as nails Sam Keeline together piece the series of puzzles that are rooted deeply in the American politics.....well i would just advice that you go ahead" with this book and all the other's that the fantastic "Gayle Lynds" has written.

Rating:
Summary: Nonstop action and cyclone of thrills and suspense........
Review: Browsing definetly hepled me the other day in a book store....
I chanced upon "MOSAIC" and the book had me totally mesmerized.
I was travelling to my homvtown and started this book in the train itself.....my best friend was bugged but while he let me be....i just about managed to finish the book while the end of our journey.Julia Austria's battle royale with the royalty that be...and the flamboyant but tough as nails Sam Keeline together piece the series of puzzles that are rooted deeply in the American politics.....well i would just advice that you go ahead" with this book and all the other's that the fantastic "Gayle Lynds" has written.

Rating:
Summary: Great Villains, Great Plot!
Review: Exciting thriller. Well-designed plot, the revelations are deserved and rewarding. Has a strong heroine and a strong female villain. Though some plot elements are almost cliche, eg Nazi treasure, narrow escapes, the big themes were fresh: conversion disorder, villainous presidential campaign.

Don't mistake this one for a chick book. It's hard, violent, rigorous, and constantly interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Super Action and More Twists than a Texas Twister
Review: Internationally famous concert pianist Julia Austrian has been blind for over a decade, her psychiatrist says she has blindness conversion disorder, in other words she was so afraid of the audience that she went blind. So now she can play her music on stage without fear. But was her fear of a live audience what really caused her to lose her sight? Or was it something else? Something sinister.

Just before a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall she gets her sight back. She is overjoyed and plays like she's never played before. Afterwards she's afraid to tell anybody she can see, she wants to wait and see if it's going to be permanent. Sadly, on the way back to her hotel with her mother, they are attacked by a mugger and her mother is killed. Julia sees the killer's face, then goes blind again.

What Julia doesn't know is that her grandfather, who had been locked up in a retirement center and declared incompetent by his sons because they wanted his money, had sent her mother a package, he'd also sent one to CIA agent Sam Keeline. The package was what the mugger was after, what had caused her mother's death. One of those son's is running for president. One is an international banker and the other is a bored software magnate. They owe everything to the money they'd stolen from their father and they want to keep it. They barely mourn their sister's death when they decide their niece Julia must die.

Keeline, beneficiary of the other package was about to open it at work when a superior agent takes it away. Sam goes to his boss, Julia's cousin and son of the presidential candidate to complain and gets no joy. He's told the package is top secret and to forget about it. What had the old man been trying to smuggle out to his daughter that got her killed? And why did he send a copy to a CIA agent? What was in those packages that would make Julia's family turn on her and order her death? This is what Julia has to find out and to do that she has to find out what really caused her to lose her sight all those years ago and she has to do it before the election which is only four days away

There is plenty in this masterfully crafted international thriller. Plenty action, plenty terrific writing and plenty bad guys after our heroine. MOSAIC will keep you awake through the wee hours of the morn. I just loved this five star book and I'm sure you will too. Gayle Lynds knows how to paint a bad guy on the page so that you can't help but hate his guts. She has more twists in her plots than a Texas twister and more CIA savvy than most of the macho guys who write about the Company. If you like action, adventure, spies and down and dirty politics, than this is the book for you.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: I Gave Up a Hot Date with Jack Nicholson for this Book
Review: Internationally renowned concert pianist Julia Austrian had been stricken by hysterical blindness on the eve of her concert debut. Conversion disorder her psychiatrist called it, kind of like shell shock. For over a decade she lived in the dark, then just before a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, she mysteriously gets her sight back. She's overjoyed, plays like a goddess, however after the concert a female killer stops her London cab, grabs her mother's handbag and jewels, then kills her mother and the cabbie, leaving Julia alive because she believed her blind. She isn't far from wrong, because the shock sends Julia back into the darkness, but Julia got a good look at the killer and she vows that no matter what the cost she will bring that woman to justice.

Back in America, Julia's uncle, Creighton Redmond is running for the presidency and just as Julia has vowed to do whatever it takes to catch her mother's killer, Creighton as vowed that nothing will get in the way of his goal. Including keeping his father locked away in an institution so he can control his money. Including hiring a killer to attack Julia and her mother in England to regain a package his father, Julia's grandfather, had mailed her from the institution. Including smearing his opponent with false pedophile charges. And including ordering Julia's murder. He will smash everything that threatens to block his path and with his son high up in the CIA he has just the tools to do it.

The story takes a devious turn when her mother's killer frames Julia for the murder of the therapist who hypnotized her and helped her get her sight back. Now she's suddenly alone and on the run. Enter out of favor CIA agent Sam Keeline and the boss at the Company he's out of favor with is Creighton's son, Julia's cousin, who has ordered a gang of rouge agents called the Janitors to track and take out Julia. Keeline comes to her aide and now it's the two of them against the world. Keeline had been on the trail of stolen NAZI treasures and thought Julia might have a lead. She didn't, but her grandfather, locked away in that institution does. But before Keeline can get what he wants and before Julia can avenge her mother's death the two of them have to run a hellish gauntlet, dodging assassins at every turn.

Mosaic is a super spy mystery thriller that kept me away from a hot date. Well, maybe not so hot, but a date for the new Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton movie that I really wanted to see. But he'll be back if he really wants to take me out and I can always rent the movie on video. You know how it is, when a girl gets her hands on a really good book, she just has to read it.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating:
Summary: terrifically terrifying
Review: It has been a decade since concert pianist Julia Austrian lost her sight due to a traumatic event that psychologically caused her brain to perceive the need to shut down her visionary sense. Miraculously, Julia recovers her sight while performing. However, she nightmarishly observes the murder of her mother, Marguerite in a drive-by killing. The killer must have figured that a blind Julia could not identify anyone, thus she was allowed to live. Julia loses her sight again. ~
Rating:
Summary: Nobody Does it Better than Gayle Lynds
Review: MOSAIC is a fast written, well plotted international thriller that will have you burning the midnight oil as you zip through all of the twists and turns in Ms. Lynds fine book. It's also a woman in peril story, a kind of romance and a bit of a mystery. Ms. Lynds has packed a lot of craft into MOSAIC, but that's not surprising, she's one heck of a writer and one heck of a character painter.

MOSAIC is peopled with a good gal, a good guy, lots of bad guys, one very bad gal, and one reformed bad buy. The goodies are blind concert pianist Julia Austrian and CIA analyst Sam Keeline. The baddies are: Presidential candidate Creighton Redmond, his son CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence Vince Redmond, Creighton's brothers, one who yearns for Alan Greenspan's job, the other who wants to be Secretary of Commerce, a deadly black widow type professional female assassin, a group of ex-CIA assassins called the Janitors, and a top detective in Scotland Yard. And the bad guy who wants a place in heaven is Creighton's father, ageing Lyle Redmond who made his fortune by stealing Nazi treasures after WW II. There you have the people, oh yes, I forgot to mention, Julia's mother is sister to the Redmond brothers which makes Lyle her grandfather and Vince her cousin. Lots of people, all expertly portrayed.

On stage at the Royal Albert Hall, Julia suddenly gets her sight back. After the concert her mother is killed in a mugging, Julia is spared as the mugger, Maya Stern the female assassin, believes her blind. Stern is after a package that old Lyle sent from the retirement home where his sons are keeping him prisoner so they can control his vast fortune. The package contains his journal which tells where the Redmond fortune came from, bad news for all those Redmonds who yearn for so much, especially with the election only four days away.

The shock of seeing her mother killed causes Julia to lose her sight again. However she happens to tell just the wrong Scotland Yard guy that she'd seen the assassin. Now the Redmond brothers have to decide, are their ambitions more important than their niece's life. Julia comes up the loser and they sick Stern, the Janitors and the whole CIA on a hunt for her. Fortunately she meets up with Keeline. Together, they must evade the forces allied against them, stop an election, right past wrongs and somehow survive.

Meanwhile,old Lyle escapes from that retirement home.

I know this all sounds like a lot and a lesser writer couldn't pull of a thriller of this magnitude, but Lynds is a pro who grabs her readers with the first paragraph and holds them by the scruff of the neck, refusing to let go until well after the book is finished. She gives you a lot to think about and one thing is for sure, you'll never look a presidential politics in quite the same way after you finish this book.

Ken Douglas, Underpaid Writer

Rating:
Summary: It's Almost Like the Cold War is Back
Review: This is the kind of thriller that many of us used to bury our faces in for a weekend when the cold war was in full swing, frosty and icy. Remember those wonderful cold war writers. Remember how their spies used to zip from merry old England to the Continent and back, oftentimes with a trip to D.C. or some third world hell hole. Remember how the bodies used to pile up as our heroes fought for truth, justice and democracy against the evil reds. Well, Gayle Lynds' MOSAIC is a thriller written in that vein. For a diehard weekend reader it's almost like the cold war is back. From start to finish, as you rush from London to Washington, to New York, to Paris with our heroine, a blind concert pianist on the run from numerous ex-CIA assassins as she desperately tries to find out who murdered her mother and why.

Her mother's brothers, a presidential candidate, a successful banker and a wealthy software developer have declared their father, a thief of NAZI treasures, incompetent so that they could use and abuse his money. The blind niece knows too much, so she has to go and that is why those assassins on her trail in this book that runneth over with action and intrigue. A stellar performance by Gayle Lynds and a book that'll have you right back in the bookstore looking for her next offering.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating:
Summary: It's all about power
Review: Throughout history, people seeking power have been willing to destroy others around them. It was not uncommon to kill uncles, nephews, brothers, cousins, fathers or sons. Sad to say, many of those people were my ancestors. In this novel, a rogue politician wants to be president. With the aid of two brothers, he has their father drugged and confined to a nursing home in order to gain control of family wealth. With the aid of a son working for the CIA, he uses intelligence assets, bribery and blackmail to gain access to or create criminal records for his political opponent. He causes the murder of a sister, and is willing to sacrifice a niece. People will betray their country, their friends, and their families if offerred the right incentives.

The main plot covers a short time period leading up to the presidential election in the United States. The story is fast paced, and the novel is hard to put down once you get involved in the plot. There are lots of people with guns, and some collateral damage. The advantage shifts back and forth between good guys and bad guys, but the good guys have some unexpected allies, and sometimes there is a "falling out among thieves."
There is a final wrap-up set a year later.

There are some technical explanations of both psychological loss of senses (in this case sight), and of the heightened senses some people develop. This last point was interesting as I have always been able to sense people behind me, but did not know how to account for that ability.