Secret Asset: Book summary and reviews of Secret Asset by Stella Rimington

Secret Asset Summary

Liz has always been particularly skilled at “assessing people,” and when one of her agents reports suspicious meetings taking place at an Islamic bookshop, she trusts her instinct that a terrorist cell is at work. Her boss, Charles Wetherby, Director of Counter-Terrorism, knows to trust Liz’s instincts as well: he immediately puts a surveillance operation into place.

So Liz is surprised when Wetherby suddenly takes her off the case. And she’s shocked to hear why: Wetherby has received a tip-off that a mole—a “secret asset”—has been planted in one of the branches of British Intelligence. If this is true, the potential damage to the Service is immeasurable. As her colleagues work to avert an impending terrorist strike, Liz is charged with the momentous task of uncovering and exposing the mole before it’s too late.

Secret Asset Reviews

"Those interested in old school British intelligence thrillers will find much to like in the smart, enterprising Carlyle . . . Much is made of the authenticity of Rimington’s tradecraft (she was the first female head of MI5 in real life), and rightly so." –Publishers Weekly.

"[Secret Asset has] whiplash control of momentum that raises your pulse a heartbeat at a time until the climax." – Kirkus Reviews.

"The author makes effective use of her professional knowledge . . . The ingenious plot entwines strands of Irish Republican Army leftovers, disaffected spies, and Islamic terrorists . . . Rimington’s sense of place is strong." – Library Journal.

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Stella Rimington Author Biography

Stella Rimington joined Britain’s Security Service (MI5) in 1969. During her nearly thirty-year career she worked in all the main fields of the Service’s responsibilities—counter subversion, counter espionage and counter terrorism—and successively became Director of all three branches. 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.

Following her retirement from MI5 in 1996, she became a nonexecutive director of Marks & Spencer and published her autobiography, Open Secret, in the United Kingdom. She is also the author of four novels featuring MI5 officer Liz Carlyle. Rimington lives in London.

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