Close Call
The Arab Spring has swept through the Middle East and Liz Carlyle and her compatriots in the Thames House's counter-espionage division are racing to investigate arms deals in Yemen. There's a UN embargo forbidding any member country from supplying arms to either side in the uprisings, but Andy Bokus, head of the CIA's London Station, has evidence that the weapons being smuggled into Yemen are not only being sold to both sides, but are coming from a connection in the UK-a highly embarrassing black mark on the government and, if true, full of disastrous consequences.
British-American cooperation widens as Liz teams up with her old rival Bruno McKay, MI6's Head of Station in Paris, and Isobel Florian of the French domestic service, the DCRI, to trail and trap the elusive weapons dealer. The evidence points to a former French intelligence officer, Antoine Milraud, who leads them all on a mad chase across Europe until investigators witness him passing something to an elegantly dressed, very mysterious man.
When Milraud is caught and informs on his fellow conspirators, Liz finds herself embroiled in a larger, potentially explosive situation that twists all the way back to what she feared most-that the arms are being sold through the UK, and the mysterious man is closer and more capable of brutal violence than she ever could have imagined.
Readers also enjoyed
Stella Rimington
Stella Rimington was educated at Nottingham Girls' High School and Edinburgh University where she took an MA in English Language and Literature. She went on to gain a Postgraduate Diploma in the Administration of Archives and The Study of Records at Liverpool University. She worked as an archivist in the Worcestershire County Archives and the India Office Library in London and in 1965 accompanied her husband on a diplomatic posting to the British High Commission in New Delhi. There, she was recruited as a part-time clerk typist by the MI5 office in the High Commission. Returning to the UK in 1969, she joined MI5 full-time, beginning a career which lasted until her retirement from the Service in 1996. During her career she became Director of each of the operational branches of the Service, counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism, and then Deputy Director General in 1991. On her appointment as Director General in 1992, she became the first female to hold the post and the first Head of one of Britain’s Intelligence Services to be publicly named, beginning a new era of openness for UK Intelligence.
Liz Carlyle Novels
Liz Carlyle Novels consists of ten books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
