Customer Reviews

Secret Asset

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If forgetting you are being read to is the sign of a good audiobook narrator, then performer Emma Fielding hits the mark. Her soft voice lets the listener lose themselves in MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle's hunt for an illusive IRA mole inside British Intelligence's counter-terrorism division. Although her voice is lyrical, Fielding doesn't convey the necessary tension and suspense of action sequences such as a car bomb that threatens to detonate in the middle of an Oxford graduation ceremony. Fielding's Irish accents are as believable as her own British speaking voice, but she struggles to sound realistic as other nationalities. Nevertheless, Rimington's mole manages to be more than a one note villain and his enactments of revenge have surprising motivations and unexpected outcomes.

I read all the reviews and took a chance. the book didn't disappoint. It hooked me from the first page. A intelligent persons choice , not your one dimensional characters

somewhat along the lines of P.D.James style .

Sorry i finished the book.

Thrash man

This is the second of the novels written by Ms Rimington to feature MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle. I've read them out of order and while this hasn't materially impacted upon my enjoyment of the novels, I would recommend new readers to start at the beginning.

In this novel, Liz is investigating a tip-off that a mole has been planted in one of the branches of British Intelligence. This is happening at the same time as Liz's colleagues are trying to encounter an impending terrorist strike and the juxtaposition of the two increases the tempo of the action considerably. Enter a world where perhaps no-one can be trusted and nothing is what it seems. Are there links between the possible mole and the impending terrorist strike? What is an effective balance between hard fact and intuition?

All three of the Liz Carlyle novels are enjoyable. While the character development is gradual, this seems appropriate for this series. Ms Rimington has succeeded in moving beyond the Cold War into a more contemporary world. She has done so in a way that is both entertaining but recognises that while old issues continue to age, they are never truly forgotten and in many ways never cease to be relevant.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Sad to say, I haven't yet read the first book in this series, but this 2nd book and also the third make me anxious to read the first.This definitely will appeal more to the John Le Carre readers than to the James Bond fans. It gives the feeling of the workaday life of an agent. The key plot points are the uncovering of a mole and the investigation of a terrorist plot on an unknown target. The reader follows several well drawn characters and the requisite tension is slowly built by the author.Mystery buffs may be disappointed by the fact that the mole's identity is pretty obvious to the reader at an early point in the book. A group of five suspects is rapidly reduced to three, then two fairly early in the book. The author seems to make little attempt to keep the reader from then picking the right one out of those two. However, the guessing of the terrorist target is more skillfully obscured although the very alert reader may spot it well before the end.However the authenticity and the fascination in the details of such an investigation sure kept me engrossed throughout and I think it will do so for most readers.

Stella Rimington, former Director General of Britain's Security Service (MI5), made a big splash with "At Risk," featuring Liz Carlyle, a dedicated career intelligence officer working in the counter-terrorism section at Thames House in London. As "Secret Asset" opens, Liz is about to confer with a young Asian man who works in an Islamic bookshop, where suspected terrorists have been gathering surreptitiously. Sohail Din, code-named Marzipan, has promised to pass on any useful information about the radical fundamentalists whom he periodically sees in the shop. Marzipan excitedly tells Liz about the visit of an important Imam from Pakistan who showed potential recruits a brutal and hate-filled video promoting holy war. Liz asks Sohail to keep monitoring the meetings, but she warns him to proceed with extreme caution. However, "she knew these were empty words. Of course he must be in jeopardy; in such operations risk was inevitable." The problem with agent running, Liz thinks guiltily, is that she must place brave people in danger in order to prevent future attacks on British soil.

At the same time, Liz and her boss, Charles Wetherby, learn that there is a mole in the British Security Services, a former Irish nationalist who may have a hidden agenda. Since this individual is not in a position to influence events in Northern Ireland and was apparently never even activated, what exactly is he or she up to? Charles assigns Liz the task of learning the mole's identity. Twenty-five year old Peggy Kinsolving, who works for MI6 at Vauxhall Cross, is seconded to Liz's office to assist in the investigation. Liz and Peggy plan to look into the backgrounds of MI5 employees who attended Oxford University in the nineties, which narrows their search considerably. Meanwhile, Liz is dismayed when her mother calls with alarming news: the doctors have discovered a growth, and she will need a biopsy to determine whether or not the tumor is malignant.

Liz is a loner who is married to her job; there is little room in her life for romance. She is leery of relationships with civilians who might ask intrusive questions about her work; at the same time, she is cordial, but not overly so, with her male colleagues. As the years go by, Liz is still alone and her mother is dismayed to think that her daughter may never find a husband.

"Secret Asset" is a low-key spy thriller about the vital work of those men and women who are responsible for keeping Great Britain safe from domestic and international threats. Liz and Peggy interview a number of individuals in their effort to find the traitor before he launches a devastating attack. Rimington makes the point that the intelligence war is never over. There will always be a crisis that requires the attention of the courageous members of MI5 and 6. Although this is a serviceable effort, it is not as suspenseful or action-packed as "At Risk," and the payoff is far less thrilling. On the plus side, Rimington's inside information about Britain's intelligence community is detailed and authentic, and the author's smooth and literate writing style make this a fast-paced and fairly entertaining novel.

Shortly after returning from leave, MI5 agent Liz Carlyle learns that a terrorist cell is operating out of an Islamic bookstore in London and that an attack appears imminent. Before she can investigate, the Director of Counter-Terrorism reassigns her to a high-risk, secret mission: discover the IRA "secret asset" (sleeper spy) who's infiltrated one of the branches of British Intelligence and expose him/her before more of Britain's secrets are exposed. But more may be at stake than just secrets when it is revealed that the mole may have gone rogue, teaming up with British-born Al Qaeda sympathizers to plot a major strike intended to wreak total destruction. It's a race against time-but who can Liz trust?

Originally published in 2006 (reprinted in a new edition), Secret Asset, the second book in Stella Rimington's spy thriller series, continues the promise shown in At Risk. Rimington, the former Director General of Britain's MI5, knows of what she writes and that authenticity resonates in the procedural details of her novels. As most know, the "devil is in the details," and it is here that Rimington's insider knowledge shines. Her descriptions of functions such as "agent running," supervising undercover civilian informants, elevates her novels above the pack.

However, authenticity is not enough to make a must-read espionage thriller and, luckily for her readers, Secret Asset is built around a captivating plot of terrorist plots, double-dealings and hidden bombs. Peggy Kinsolving, the young research assistant assigned to work with Liz, is a great foil and allows Rimington to explore the rivalry between the branches of British Intelligence while delving into the psychological makeup and histories of the possible moles.

Secret Asset is a must read for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to betray your country, what mixture of character traits or personality quirks a double agent must possess to carry out their task.

Armchair Interviews says: If you love thrillers, check out this author's work.

From our armchair to yours...

This was a good read with believable characters that were not super human and therefore unbelievable. The suprise revolved around finding the Secret Asset as easrly in the book but then they had to catch him and that involved reasons for his behavior that were surprising. This has the makings of a gret series.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"