Secret Asset, Stella Rimington
Secret Asset, Stella Rimington
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Secret Asset

Author: Stella Rimington

Narrator: Emma Fielding

Abridged: 4 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/19/2007

Synopsis

With her debut novel, At Risk, Stella Rimington introduced us to Liz Carlyle–a smart, impassioned MI5 intelligence officer whose talents and ambitions are counterbalanced by an abiding awareness of her job’s moral complexities. In Secret Asset, we are plunged back into her high-stakes, high-tension world.
Liz has always been particularly skilled at “assessing people,” and trusts her instinct that a terrorist cell is at work at an Islamic bookshop. But when her boss, Charles Wetherby, suddenly takes her off the case, she’s shocked to hear why: Wetherby has received a tip-off that a mole is at work in one of the branches of British Intelligence.
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.

About The Author

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 At Risk, the first Liz Carlyle novel. Rimington lives in London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Simon

The former Director General of MI5 has written a spy thriller. It should have been the equivalent of Jamie Oliver cooking you dinner or David Beckham teaching your kids how to play football. In fact, it was a bit like Bruce Forsythe telling you how to stay young. I don’t think I truly understood wha......more

Goodreads review by Robert

I am a fan of John Le Care’s ‘Cold War’ novels which satirise the British establishment through the medium of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). The language employed is often deliberately opaque and elliptical but the characters are carefully drawn and their motives are often hidden and confusi......more

Goodreads review by Jackie

I gave this book 5 stars as it kept me guessing for quite a while trying to work out who the mole was and what damage they planned to do. It was a perfect holiday puzzle as clues and red herrings were dropped into text. However, once I’d guessed and then had it confirmed the rest of the book seemed......more

Quotes

“Fast-moving . . . Rimington continues to deliver on the promise of spy fiction written not only by a former spy but also by the head of British intelligence. This is a smartly constructed, sharply written thriller that exudes realism and a professional’s eye for detail . . . Rimington also proves adept at building characters and constructing plots.”–David Pitt, Booklist“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 JournalPraise for At Risk:“This is something very rare: the spy novel that prizes authenticity over fabrication.” –Mail on Sunday“Tense and terrifying.” –Cosmopolitan“A cracking good thriller” –Lynn Barber, Observer “Intelligent — Undeniably pacy” –Guardian “Rimington makes adroit use of her expertise as former MI5 chief” –Sunday Times “The Secret Service background is exceedingly convincing” –Evening Standard “First class” –Douglas Hurd, New StatesmanPraise for Stella Rimington’s autobiography Open Secret:“The story of MI5’s transformation is fascinating. So too is Rimington’s account of her rise in what was very definitely a man’s world.”—Guardian“She writes in a refreshingly self-deprecating style of juggling the roles of single parent and chief ‘spook’.”—Independent on Sunday“Open Secret is a fascinating account not only of Stella Rimington’s various roles in the evolving Security Services, but also of the strains on a single mother as she struggles to compartmentalize a life that is necessarily unpredictable, stressful and shrouded in secrecy.”—Time Out

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