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Checked out
Due 5-02-2022
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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:The fiercely intelligent, ambitious MI5 officer Liz Carlyle returns in a spy novel of arresting psychological complexity and unflagging suspense. In the most recent installment in the Liz Carlyle series, Liz has been transferred to counter-espionage�??the hub of MI5 operations during the Cold War. Her mission: protect Nikita Brunovsky, an increasingly vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin, who has been targeted for assassination and is seeking refuge in the UK. The Foreign Office is adamant about forestalling a crime that could become a full-blown international incident. So Liz goes undercover, attaching herself to Brunovsky's retinue: racing against the clock to determine who betrayed him and suddenly facing a wholly unexpected second task�??unmasking a Russian operative working undercover alongsid… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member dsc73277
This maintains the high standards set by the first two books in the series featuring fictional spook Liz Carlyle. It is a good page turner with some dramatic, if predictable, closing chapters.
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
Another story in the Liz Carlyle series. This time she goes undercover at a Russian Oligarch's house in London to try to identify if he is under threat and by whom. As you might expect good on security services procedural detail, including inter-service rivalries, which kept me reading up to the
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end, although not wholly satisfactory plotting. Show Less
LibraryThing member magentaflake
Liz Carlisle is back in action as an agent with British intelligence. This is a "traditional thriller/heroine mix of dysfunctional personal life and steely ambition."
LibraryThing member Helenliz
This was a tight espionage story, with enough twists & turns to keep you guessing what might be going on, and plenty of action in the last quarter of the book. It builds slowly to the climax, but there's certainly enough going on to keep your interest.
Liz Carlyle is an agent in MI5 and she's been
Liz was really very believable. She is clearly in love with her old boss and has a certain attitude of proving that she's not just a feeble female in a male environment - at times in conflict to all her instincts. She wasn't superhuman and had just enough fallibility to ring true.
I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator was very good, doing a complete set of accents with style. A very good listen.
Liz Carlyle is an agent in MI5 and she's been
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assigned to counter-espionage, under the control of Brian who is still living sometime in the cold war. She gets placed in the house of a Russian Oligarch and ends up getting mixed up in the slightly convoluted plans of a Russian secret agent. What these are, I will not divulge, but there are plenty of twists and turns to get there.Liz was really very believable. She is clearly in love with her old boss and has a certain attitude of proving that she's not just a feeble female in a male environment - at times in conflict to all her instincts. She wasn't superhuman and had just enough fallibility to ring true.
I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator was very good, doing a complete set of accents with style. A very good listen.
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LibraryThing member quiBee
It feels authentic. Pieces come together bit by bit and what seems obvious doesn't pan out.
LibraryThing member pgchuis
The third in the series and my least favourite so far. Liz has moved to counter-intelligence (mainly Russia) and has a new boss. She reluctantly agrees to pretend to be an art student so she can hang around at the house of a Russian oligarch who is an art lover and who might be at risk of
The plot was extremely unlikely and I never quite understood what Liz was trying to achieve. SPOILERS: Also, how did Greta know about Liz at all to wangle her meeting with Dmitri in Cambridge? Why did they work so hard to have Morozov and Brunovsky in Ireland at the same time if Liz was to be Brunovsky's alibi? Wouldn't it have been an even more convincing alibi if Liz and Brunovsky had stayed in London and Morozov had gone to look at the painting?
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assassination (or he might not). There was also a strand involving the oligarch's chauffeur-bodyguard being forced to report to the Russians on his boss' contacts.The plot was extremely unlikely and I never quite understood what Liz was trying to achieve. SPOILERS: Also, how did Greta know about Liz at all to wangle her meeting with Dmitri in Cambridge? Why did they work so hard to have Morozov and Brunovsky in Ireland at the same time if Liz was to be Brunovsky's alibi? Wouldn't it have been an even more convincing alibi if Liz and Brunovsky had stayed in London and Morozov had gone to look at the painting?
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LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
This novel sees Liz Carlyle, the capable, conscient MI5 officer, return for a third outing, this time engaging with the bizarre community of immensely (even immeasurably) Russian oligarchs who have relocated to London.
Through informal channels, it has come to the attention of MI5 that their Russian
Against this backdrop, Liz Carlyle infiltrates the household of the oligarch who is thought to be at risk, masquerading as a postgraduate student of art history hired to advise him on prospective additions to his already impressive stock of artefacts. The household is certainly unorthodox, even beyond the context of the limitless money fuelling its members’ self-indulgent lifestyles. It also seems to harbour several threats to the wellbeing of the oligarch, but also, as time moves on, to Liz herself.
As in Stella Rimington’s previous novels, the interplay between MI5 and its fellow (rival?) security agencies, is explored in an interesting manner, and once again she delivers a gripping and plausible plot.
Through informal channels, it has come to the attention of MI5 that their Russian
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counterparts might be planning to assign an ‘Illegal’ to an operation in the United Kingdom. An ‘illegal’ is an agent who lives in the host country entirely without any official diplomatic cover, and is consequently vulnerable to the full impact of local law, without recourse to Embassy-sponsored immunity. At the same time, different informal intelligence channels have suggested that one of the many Russian oligarchs might have been earmarked for assassination. By way of broader contest, this novel was published in 2007, shortly after the murder in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security agent who had defected. Litvinenko had accused his senior officers of having commissioned the assassination of the business tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Having been arrested on charges of having exceeded his authority, Litvinenko was acquitted and subsequently fled to London where he claimed asylum. He subsequently died as a consequence of polonium poisoning, with prevailing public opinion laying the ultimate blame on the Russian authorities.Against this backdrop, Liz Carlyle infiltrates the household of the oligarch who is thought to be at risk, masquerading as a postgraduate student of art history hired to advise him on prospective additions to his already impressive stock of artefacts. The household is certainly unorthodox, even beyond the context of the limitless money fuelling its members’ self-indulgent lifestyles. It also seems to harbour several threats to the wellbeing of the oligarch, but also, as time moves on, to Liz herself.
As in Stella Rimington’s previous novels, the interplay between MI5 and its fellow (rival?) security agencies, is explored in an interesting manner, and once again she delivers a gripping and plausible plot.
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
This is the third in the author's series of intelligence-themed thrillers featuring MI5 officer Liz Carlyle. Unlike the previous two dealing mostly with Islamic terrorism, this concerns an apparent plot to murder a Russian oligarch in London. The plot is not what it seems, but all the same struck
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me as rather less dramatic than its predecessors and somewhat inconsequential, so I enjoyed this one rather less Show Less
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0.04 inches
ISBN
0141349441 / 9780141349442