cover image The Book of Spies

The Book of Spies

Gayle Lynds, read by Kate Reading, Blackstone Audio, unabridged, 12 CDs, 14.5 hrs., $39.96 ISBN 978-1-4417-2689-6

Rare-book expert Eva Blake is pulled into a frantic search for the Library of Gold—a collection of illuminated manuscripts thought to be lost in the 15th century—and embroiled in a conspiracy that reaches to the mountains of Afghanistan. As in the novels of Robert Ludlum, with whom Lynds has collaborated, the pace is unrelenting and the villains unbelievably efficient and prescient. While the story is tense and exciting in some places, the protagonists are too thinly drawn to invite emotional investment. Still, Kate Reading wrings every last drop of drama from the story; she handles the characterizations exceedingly well, creates plausible female and male characters of all age and accents, and keeps her audience enraptured. A St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 15). (May)