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Gayle Lynds

Goodreads Author

Born

Omaha, Nebraska, The United States

Website

http://www.gaylelynds.com/

Twitter

gaylelynds

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers

Member Since

July 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/wwwgoodreadscomgayle_lynds

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New York Times bestseller Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of ten international espionage novels. Library Journal calls her “the reigning queen of espionage fiction.” The London Observer says she’s a “kick-ass thriller writer.” Lee Child calls her “today’s best espionage writer.”

Born in Omaha, NE, and raised in Council Bluffs, IA, Gayle graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism. While there, she often sneaked into classes and readings at the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was blessed by remarkable teachers — among them were John Irving in rhetoric and Kurt Vonnegut in a literature class. For her, the university was a lively petri dish of books, writing, and adventure.

Gayle officially began her writing New York Times bestseller Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of ten international espionage novels. Library Journal calls her “the reigning queen of espionage fiction.” The London Observer says she’s a “kick-ass thriller writer.” Lee Child calls her “today’s best espionage writer.”

Born in Omaha, NE, and raised in Council Bluffs, IA, Gayle graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism. While there, she often sneaked into classes and readings at the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was blessed by remarkable teachers — among them were John Irving in rhetoric and Kurt Vonnegut in a literature class. For her, the university was a lively petri dish of books, writing, and adventure.

Gayle officially began her writing career as a reporter for The Arizona Republic, where a series of her investigative pieces made such an impact that they led to changes in state legislation. Later she took a job as an editor with rare Top Secret security clearance at a private think tank that did government work. Assorted shadowy figures passed through, and not only ideas but engineers and artists seemed to bounce off the walls. She was inspired. She wanted to write about what she was seeing and experiencing.

Expressing her love of mainstream literature, she wrote short stories that were published in literary journals. Simultaneously, she wrote male pulp novels in the Nick Carter series. Soon the two forms began to jell in her mind. The first novel under her own name, Gayle Lynds, was Masquerade, a New York Times bestseller that Publishers Weekly later listed as one of the top ten spy novels of all time.

Others of her novels have been prize winners. The Last Spymaster won Best Novel from both the American Authors Association and the Military Writers Society of America. The Book of Spies was a finalist for both the Nero and Audie awards. The Coil won Best Contemporary Novel from Affaire de Coeur. Mosaic was RT Thriller of the Year. Mesmerized was a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist. With Robert Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series, one of which, The Hades Factor, was a CBS miniseries.

Gayle’s previous husband was Dennis Lynds, an award-winning detective novelist who died in 2005. They had lived several decades in Santa Barbara, CA, where they raised their children. In 2011, a new stage of her life began when she married John C. Sheldon, a long-time resident of Maine. A retired judge, John is a former prosecutor and defense attorney and Visiting Scholar to Harvard Law School. Today they live on fourteen acres of oaks, maples, hemlocks, and white pine outside Portland. A voracious reader, John had never written fiction when they met. Now they have collaborated on three short stories.

Gayle is a member of the Association for Intelligence Operatives and cofounder (with David Morrell) and former copresident of International Thriller Writers, Inc. ITW’s annual celebration is ThrillerFest, held every July in New York City. ...more

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Gayle Lynds's Blog: Books & Life, Etc.

WHAT KIND OF SPY WOULD YOU BE?

Are you ruthless? Trustworthy? Cool-headed? Take this Spy-Q quiz to find out if you've got what it takes, then read about a few of my favorite spies.

TAKE THE QUIZ here: http://bit.ly/SPYQ2

Antonio Mendez, Ex-CIA

Combine Editions
Gayle Lynds’s books

Average rating: 3.83 · 42,088 ratings · 3,096 reviews · 73 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Book of Spies (Judd Ryder & Eva Blake, #1) 3.58 avg rating — 2,016 ratings — published 2010 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Spymaster 3.86 avg rating — 1,112 ratings — published 2005 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Masquerade (Liz Sansborough, #1) 3.73 avg rating — 725 ratings — published 1996 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Assassins (Judd Ryder & Eva Blake, #2) 3.82 avg rating — 601 ratings — published 2015 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Coil (Liz Sansborough, #2) 3.80 avg rating — 479 ratings — published 2004 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mosaic 3.91 avg rating — 294 ratings — published 1998 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mesmerized 3.94 avg rating — 254 ratings — published 2001 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rambo on Their Minds by Gayle Lynds (Goodreads Author), David Morrell (Goodreads Author) 3.99 avg rating — 210 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hunt for Dmitri 3.44 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 2006	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ostatni superszpieg really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Gayle Lynds…

Series by Gayle Lynds

Judd Ryder & Eva Blake (2 books)
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Gayle Lynds (Goodreads Author)

3.63 avg rating — 2,617 ratings

Quotes by Gayle Lynds (?)

“From the great Jack London: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” What inspires you?”
― Gayle Lynds

tags: books, inspiration, jack-london, writing

2 likes

“Mellencamp sat back. He had just left his meeting with Liz Sansborough, where he had failed to get the information he needed.”
― Gayle Lynds, The Coil

1 likes

“ive alwasys said i the cook on the bus i at the beach all the time”
― Gayle Lynds, Ostatni superszpieg

tags: gay-romance

0 likes

See all Gayle Lynds's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Mystery/Thriller ...: Bouchercon reports	55	164	Nov 04, 2009 01:48PM
The Seasonal Read...: 30.5 (PJ Reads' Task - As Suggested By Tanja - Six Degrees of Separation)	347	422	May 26, 2010 07:44AM
The Seasonal Read...: * Summer Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2614	897	Aug 31, 2011 09:18PM
The Mystery, Crim...: Currently Reading? Just Finished?	10121	3959	May 09, 2013 11:36AM
Action/Adventure ...: December Geopolitical Suspense/Thriller Nominations Thread	15	26	Nov 27, 2013 04:34PM
Ladies & Literature: Are you loving what you're reading?	693	328	Dec 16, 2013 01:22PM
Reading with Style: SU 2014 Author Chains	46	159	Aug 02, 2014 03:03PM
2025 & 2026 Readi...: Claire P's corner	21	64	Aug 27, 2014 08:09AM

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Gayle’s Quotes

“When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life.”
― Christopher Marley

24 likes

“From the great Jack London: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” What inspires you?”
― Gayle Lynds

tags: books, inspiration, jack-london, writing

2 likes

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

tags: freedom, identity, independence, self-awareness, self-discovery

3953 likes

Gayle’s Friend Comments

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message 2: by Gayle

Oct 24, 2011 12:48PM

Hi Ed ... It's good to hear from you. I hope it's a good deployment. I really appreciate your service. If you ever can get snail mail there, please let me know and I'll send a box of paperbacks. warm regards, Gayle

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message 1: by Ed

Sep 30, 2011 11:30AM

Thanks once again, Gayle, for the friendship. I loved reading about your journey to letters and words and big ideas.
I left a hardback of yours in my hangar home in Cali because I had to travel light for this deployment. A Kindle is on order! But there are no books here and no mail delivery so the slow Internet connection is my lifeline. I will miss my own book launch, and that kind of sucks, but like you, I'm very very grateful for my life. Cheers, Ed

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