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Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / Espionage / Rimington, Stella
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

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"A Liz Carlyle novel"--book jacket.
Still reeling from the loss of her boyfriend in a botched anti-terrorist operation, Liz Carlyle has been posted to MI5's counter-espionage desk, where she's hoping to have relative security to find her feet. However, Russia's incursions into the Crimea and President Putin's determination to silence those who oppose him, wherever they may be, quash that hope. Liz soon finds herself on the hunt for a Russian spy in Britain. And with MI5 and MI6 under painful public scrutiny in the post-Edward Snowden world, security seems like a remote possibility for Liz's team. -- adapted from book jacket.

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plot too transparent to enjoy submitted by camelsamba on August 7, 2023, 5:36pm Let me start by saying I have enjoyed this series. However, this one fell short.

In this book, a lawyer / human rights campaigner (Jasminder) gets recruited to do PR for MI6. She is supposed to represent a new transparency, to counteract suspicions and mistrust rising amongst the public. So you might think transparency is some sort of metaphor. Instead, it is more like a one-word summary of how the plot develops. The broad strokes of what would happen were so obvious! I'm surprised Liz and Peggy didn't catch on more quickly, but then they didn't get to see quite as much as we readers did. It feels like Dame Rimington was just coasting on this plot. Or maybe this is her not-so-subtle dig at transparency?

Two positive points: it was interesting how the whole "Putin is trying to undermine the west" angle was somewhat prescient - this book was *published* in 2016! That is, before trump was elected and before the Brexit vote; we now know Russia worked hard to manipulate public opinion in both. Also intriguing to read (in late summer 2022) about the trip into Donetsk, given the current conflict in Ukraine. But the Jasminder angle just ruined it for me. Despite being a tough, principled human rights campaigner, she was hopelessly naive and easily manipulated - even before being honey-trapped. Hard to believe she wouldn't have been given more training by MI6, even (especially??!) in her role as a spokesperson.