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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jan 2005, 384 pages
Paperback:
May 2006, 448 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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Drawing from her experience as the first woman director general of MI5, Stella Rimington gives us a story that is smart, tautly drawn, and suspenseful from first to last.
An announcement is made at a meeting of the British Intelligence Joint
Counter-Terrorist group: "The opposition may be about to deploy an
invisible." An "invisible" is CIA-speak for the ultimate intelligence
nightmare: a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country and who can
therefore cross its borders unchecked, move around the country unquestioned, and
go unnoticed while setting up the foundation for monstrous harm.
Intelligence officer Liz Carlyle has had to prove herself in countless ways as
she's come up through the ranks of the traditionally all-male world of
Britain's Security Service, MI5. But this announcement marks the start of an
operation that will test all her hard-won knowledge and experience–and her
intelligence and courage–as nothing has before. Having analyzed information
from her agents, she realizes that there is indeed an imminent terrorist threat.
She may even have the invisible's point of entry. But what she cannot draw out
of all the "chatter" is the invisible's identity and intended target.
With each passing hour, the danger increases. As the desperate hunt continues,
it becomes clear that Liz's intuitive skills, her ability to get deep inside
her enemy's head, are her best hope for tracking down the terrorist. But will
that be enough? And can she succeed in time to avert a disaster?
Drawing from her experience as the first woman director general of MI5, Stella
Rimington gives us a story that is smart, tautly drawn, and suspenseful from
first to last. At Risk is a stunning debut novel that plunges us headlong
into today's shadowy and fever-pitched battle between terrorism and
Intelligence.
With quiet finality, the tube train drew to a stop. A long hydraulic gasp, and
then silence.
For several moments no one in the crowded carriage moved. And then, as the
stillness and the silence deepened, eyes began to flicker. Standing passengers
peered worriedly through the windows into the blackness, as if hoping for some
explanatory vision or revelation.
They were halfway between Mornington Crescent and Euston, Liz Carlyle
calculated. It was five past eight, it was Monday, and she was almost certainly
going to be late for work. Around her pressed the smell of other people 's
damp clothes. A wet briefcase, not her own, rested in her lap.
Nestling her chin into her velvet scarf, Liz leant back into her seat and
cautiously extended her feet in front of her. She shouldn't have worn the
pointed plum-coloured shoes. She 'd bought them a couple of weeks earlier on a
light-hearted and extravagant shopping trip, but now the toes were beginning to
curl up from ...
A perfectly enjoyable thriller but without the edge of a true master such as Le Carré. Still, considering Rimington's background (as the former Director General of MI5) and that this is her first foray into fiction, she is definitely one to watch...continued
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
According to a BBC
Interview with Rimington, there is no exact equivalent to MI5 in
the USA - the nearest equivalent is what used to be called the Foreign
Counter Intelligence arm of the FBI. She goes on to say that "MI5 is a civilian
intelligence service with no powers of arrest or any other police powers, but a
lot of investigative powers. For example, tbey have the power to intercept
communications, follow people around, and search houses and cars. Its job is to help
to protect the country against serious threats to our national security by
generating intelligence, assessing it and taking action on it to prevent the
harm intended."
Rimington's autobiography, Open Secret, was published in 2001 ...
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