0 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:0.0

Gayle Lynds’s Followers (218)

Gayle’s Bookshelves

read (0)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (2)

Gayle’s Friends (52)

Christopher Morin

9 books | 35 friends

itchy

1,961 books | 244 friends

Caron Kamps Widden

375 books | 2,038 friends

Bryan Cassiday

321 books | 3,397 friends

Christopher Woods

526 books | 19 friends

John

1,813 books | 75 friends

Steve Dustcircle

8,404 books | 2,173 friends

Lynessa Layne

178 books | 778 friends

More friends…

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

edit data

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

30 posts
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: 3.79 · 45,642 ratings · 3,650 reviews · 43 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Book of Spies (Judd Ryder & Eva Blake, #1) 3.56 avg rating — 1,872 ratings — published 2010 — 42 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 3.83 avg rating — 978 ratings — published 2005 — 31 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 — 681 ratings — published 1996 — 9 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) 3.81 avg rating — 539 ratings — published 2015 — 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
	The Coil (Liz Sansborough, #2) 3.79 avg rating — 450 ratings — published 2004 — 18 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 — 266 ratings — published 1998 — 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
	Mesmerized 3.91 avg rating — 229 ratings — published 2001 — 11 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) 4.03 avg rating — 120 ratings — 5 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 3.26 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 2006 — 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
	Max Is Calling 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2011	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)
by

Gayle Lynds (Goodreads Author)

3.62 avg rating — 2,411 ratings

Liz Sansborough (2 books)
by

Gayle Lynds (Goodreads Author)

3.73 avg rating — 1,173 ratings

rss
Gayle’s Recent Updates

Gayle Lynds is now friends with Lynessa Layne
Aug 24, 2022 12:09PM · like

More of Gayle's books…

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

topics	posts	views	last activity
Mystery/Thriller ...: Bouchercon reports	55	158	Nov 04, 2009 01:48PM
The Seasonal Read...: 30.5 (PJ Reads' Task - As Suggested By Tanja - Six Degrees of Separation)	348	415	May 26, 2010 07:44AM
The Seasonal Read...: * Summer Challenge 2011 Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS)	2629	862	Aug 31, 2011 09:18PM
The Mystery, Crim...: Currently Reading? Just Finished?	10130	3952	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	49	151	Aug 02, 2014 03:03PM
2023 Reading Chal...: Claire P's corner	21	64	Aug 27, 2014 08:09AM