“Woe is me! I have just found spy-writer Gayle Lynds, who has co-written several books in Robert Ludlum’s series of spy thrillers as well as a number of her own best-selling stories. Why “woe is me” then? Because I have just finished The Book of Spies and now have to add Gayle’s previous books to my current list of favorite spy writers. The book is more than 500 pages and contains the author’s afterward about what is real and what is not.
Based on a real, yet mysterious library created more than 600 years ago by the Byzantine emperors, the Library of Gold surfaces in the 21st Century. It is currently “owned and protected” by a Book Club consisting of 10 of the wealthiest people in the world who have plans to acquire mining rights in Afghanistan potentially worth trillions of dollars, even if hundreds of people need to be eliminated. The story takes us from California to Washington DC, to locales in Europe. Reluctant CIA contract operative Judd Ryder and librarian/curator Eva Blake match wits with the Book Club members and its hired killers.
A real page-turner. I look forward to reading Gayle Lynds’ previous titles.”—Jim Harris, retired publisher’s rep