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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As real as it gets.,
By
This review is from: Secret Asset (Hardcover)
If you like it real, then Stella Rimington is it. Imagine James Bond and his high flying exploits; disregard, and try to visualize the very extreme opposite. An unobtrusive middle class woman commuting to work in a uniform brick coloured world under a leaden grey sky and going over the numbingly dull details of hundreds of insignificant lives. From there she culls tiny little anomalies which would only stick out for an unbelievably fastidious mind. And little by little she pieces together the shadows of a puzzle that may or may not lead to the foiling of a plot to unleash very real violence on some people she doesn't know. Now where her real talent comes in, is that she makes it so real that it becomes absolutely riveting; and much more enjoyable than any sort of glamorous adventure fiction. As a matter of fact, when I closed the book, I went right over to my computer to consult Amazon and see what else she'd written.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant page turner/ Beach novel,
By Sarah Durston (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Secret Asset (Hardcover)
If you like spy thrillers you will almost certainaly love this book. As well as trying to stop a terrorist attack, Liz Carlyle must find an IRA mole (who infiltrated MI5, but was never activated.)
The characters are great and the story cracks along at a terrific pace. There are the usual twists and turns, and although I did guess who the mole was about half way through, there was always the chance that I was wrong (!) and it did nothing to spoil my enjoyment of the book. Rimington also adds in some nice touches. Even characters who are only bit part players are well drawn and we find out small details about their lives and why they were in that place at that time. If this is the kind of thing you usually enjoy then buy it! Safe houses, surveillance techniques, the inner workings of the terrorist mind, IRA informers.....this book has it all.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
four and a half stars,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Secret Asset (Liz Carlyle) (Hardcover)
This is the second book by former MI5 head Rimington and it's even better than At Risk. Rimington does excellent secondary and minor characters - the Oxford dons, the varied colleagues, the various civilians all come across crispy with just the right amount of detail to make them memorable and interesting. Once again, Liz is the least clearly drawn character in the book, but this time there are no gaping holes in her day to day life. The settings get more time and space here than in the first book - lovers of London and Oxford will be very very happy -- and the pacing of the plot, which was excellent in At Risk At Risk: A Novel, is truly outstanding: you'll stay up all night. The author combines the best elements of a procedural with the action scenes of a spy thriller.
And that brings me to the one problem. Rimington doesn't end well. In her first novel, she practically threw up her hands and offered the reader an explosive version of "whatever." Here she spends more time and ink, but it is still a weak ending for such a strong narrative. But it's well worth your time and pocket change: lots of British-isms for Anglophiles.
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