Gayle Lynds is the New York Times bestselling author of four international thrillers including Masquerade and The Coil. She is also the co-author with Robert Ludlum of three bestselling novels in the Covert-One series including The Hades Factor and The Paris Option. She has been a newspaper reporter, a magazine editor, and a think-tank editor with top-secret clearance before turning to fiction. She lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, writer Dennis Lynds.