A sequel to the "New York Times" bestselling novel, "Masquerade", "The Coil" picks up several years later. Liz Sansborough, former CIA agent and now an academic, has managed to put the pieces of her life back together. But Sansborough has a dark secret - she is the daughter of the one of the most notorious Cold War Assassins, The Carnivore. When a series of prominent political figures are blackmailed into certain actions or die in suspicious ways, the CIA becomes convinced that someone has gotten hold of the Carnivore's files and is using that information to further some secret agenda. Sansborough herself - the closet living link to the Carnivore - is the target of a murder attempt, her offices are searched, her files stolen and her TV program on the secrets of the Cold War inexplicably shelved by the network. When she learns her cousin Sarah Walker - who bears a close resemblance to Sansborough - is kidnapped off the street with the ransom demand being the Carnivore's missing - possibly apocryphal - files, Liz is determined to save her cousin and uncover the swirling conspiracy, linked to a shadowy group known as The Coil, centred around the legacy of her father. But she's far from the only one going after the truth behind the legendary assassin.