October 2008 Book of the Month.

Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 6 November 2008.

Interestingly as this author changes publisher so too does she change style.  Although this is still a Liz Carlyle thriller, it is less boysie - there is a lot of emotional reflection here by Liz and a friend's mother attached to a rogue agent.  It revolves round a conference in Glen Eagles where the detail and inter-departmental rivalry are well done, but it's not one of her best, so enjoy this, it's good, then go back to her earlier three.

Comparision: Evelyn Anthony, Clare Francis, Colin Forbes.

Synopsis

MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state will attend.

The Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door.The source claims that Syrian Intelligence will act against the pair, presumably by killing them. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out.

But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake and the conference deadline is drawing ever closer.

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About the Author

Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1965 and during her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service's responsibilities - counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism - and became successively Director of all three branches. She was appointed Director-General of MI5 in 1992. She was the first woman to hold the post and the first Director-General whose name was publicly announced on appointment. Her autobiography, Open Secret, was published by Hutchinson in 2001. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation