Customer Reviews

Mosaic

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

When your bedside clock tolls three a.m. and you're still reading Lynds'MOSAIC, you almost wish for the psychological blindness that overwhelms her engaging heroine at the worst possible moments. Then you could get some sleep. No such blessing befell me. I read, bleary-eyed, until Lynds unraveled the myriad plot twists for me. Why do plot threads of murder, blackmail, fabulous World War II treasure, political skullduggery, and an attempt to steal the Presidency of the U.S. cord themselves round a beautiful concert pianist, until they're almost a hangman's noose? You'll just have to read and find out. And did I mention romance and sex?

4 stars because Lynds was able to package the myriad of subplots into a nice neat package at the end. Very well done, but confusing in the beginning.

Protagonist Julia Austrian is a brilliant concert pianist who is mysteriously stricken with a rare psychological condition known as "conversion disorder" (explained in detail in the author's note at the conclusion of the book). She has been blind for ten years, regains her sight suddenly before a performance, only to lose it again when she witnesses her mother's brutal murder. I know this plot sounds questionable but (1) this psychological condition is very real and (2) Lynds is very talented. She makes it work beautifully without putting all of us through the wringer.

This was a terrific read. My only pet peeves...

(1) It seemed slow at the beginning. I noticed the action picked up for me about 100 or so pages into it when Julia meets Sam Keeline, a maverick CIA analyst who saves her life (in more ways than one).

(2)The many confusing subplots that are introduced in the prologue did not give me a very good first impression of this book. I felt Lynds threw too much at me at once and I was ready to put this back on the shelf for another time (I don't handle overwhelm very well!).

(3) Creighton Redmond's character seemed a bit too one-dimensional to me. His corrupted arm had a very long (Inspector Gadget-like) reach. I found it hard to believe that someone, even a politician, would act so desperately and go to such grave lengths to win an election, but hey, I suppose anything is possible...and the very talented Lynds leaves the door open to those possibilities.

Despite these personal objections, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely pick it up again to recapture some of its many spectacular moments...especially those wonderful intimate interactions between Julia and Sam, and of course, the musings of my favorite character, Lyle Redmond (who you'll have to meet for yourself..he's a real kick!).

Cris

I really enjoyed reading MOSAIC by Gayle Lynds. It was a very exciting book and kept me interested. Now I am hooked on Gayle Lynds, which actually started with a Covert One book. I will keep this one in my collection.

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.

Mosaic is a very well written book. The story line is very interesting. The more you read the more you can not put it down. The story is almost spell binding. While reading the book it becomes very easy to forget whats going on around you. You are pulled deep into the story. Great suspense. Great jaw dropper.

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

Mosaic is an early novel espionage thriller author Gayle Lynds. In this novel she takes several acts which initially seem to be unconnected and weave them together to tell a fast paced, exciting story of mysteries and violence. Plot Point 1: an old man has been put into a high security retirement home where he has been deemed insane and unfit to manage his massive fortune. He blames his sons. Plot Point 2: Creighton Redmond, a retired Supreme Court Justice, is running for President of the United States and is engaged in an illegal scheme to discredit his opponent. He does so with the best intentions, honestly feeling that he would be an excellent President. And his family would gain even more wealth and power. Plot Point 3: Julia Austrian is a world class pianist. She is blind (not from birth) and regains her sight in time to see her mother murdered in front of her during a robbery attempt and she sees the killer's face. Then she loses her sight again. The investigator at Scotland Yard is blackmailed to cover up the investigation. Plot Point 4: CIA agent Sam Keeline is in the bad graces of his Deputy Chief of Intelligence Vince Redmond and when Redmond intercepts a letter sent to Keeline claiming it contains classified information, Keeline is suspicious. Not knowing about any of the other plot points he starts a different investigation about the famed Amber Room (a treasure lost during the Nazi Era) which leads him to Julia Austrian.

Lynds weaves all of these plot points together so that they are all connected and intertwined and runs the story from there in directions I certainly did not expect. There are a couple of points that come up that feel fairly standard (romance, anyone?), but Lynds tells the story well. A former Supreme Court Justice trying to steal an election is interesting in itself and one wonders if such a thing is possible and then we wonder how Redmond could possibly lose the election in time. Will Julia recover her sight again and will Keeline be able to protect her? Gayle Lynds makes these questions matter.

While later novels like The Coil and The Last Spymaster have tighter storylines with fewer loose threads, Mosaic is still an exciting read and sure to please readers looking for a fast paced suspenseful story.

-Joe Sherry

Gayle really keeps you intrested in this exciting mystery/love story from beginning to end. She really knows how to keep your intrest with new twists and turns to this story in every chapter. I highly recommend this book. Trust me, you won't put it down.

The problem here is how to synopsize this thrill-a-page novel without giving too much away. An rich old man is locked away in a nursing home because he likes being a philanthropist. Through his own cunning, he manages to get two messages out, one to a CIA analyst, Sam Keeline; the other to his daughter. His captors must retrieve those messages at all costs. Julia Austrian is a concert pianist who has, for the past ten years, suffered from what lay people would term, "hysterical blindness." Just as she is about to give a concert in London, her sight returns. Elated, she shares this with her mother who is also her manager traveling with her. Their happiness is short lived, however, when a robber stops the car in which they are traveling, then shoots and kills Julia's mother and the driver. Unknown to all, Julia saw the attacker's face and can identify the killer. However, the trauma of the incident results in the blindness returning. The killer learns that Julia can make this identification. So Julia must die. Gayle Lynds has written one dynamic tale of greed, revenge, and self-preservation. The pace is rip-roaring fast with scenes that will send chills down the readers' spines. Some of the characters are appalling which makes them scary and memorable. By the time the reader is finished, exhaustion sets in, quickly replaced by an urge to read Mosaic again.

Affaire de Coeur