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    Secret Asset
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    Secret Asset
    Unavailable
    Secret Asset
    Audiobook10 hours

    Secret Asset

    Written by Stella Rimington

    Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 19, 2007
    ISBN9781415938881
    Unavailable
    Secret Asset
    Author

    Stella Rimington

    Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. She has written her autobiography and six Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

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    Reviews for Secret Asset

    3.5/5

    92 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Secret Asset, the 2nd in Stella Rimington's series starring Liz Carlyle, is a fast-paced cat & mouse thriller that doesn't let up. Carlyle, a MI5 operator in London, returns to work after an injury and is thrust into the search for a supposedly inactive Northern Irish mole in the British intelligence service. Concurrently, a Pakistani terrorist cell is planning something big in London and, due to her previous relationship with an informer, she's drawn into that investigation as well.To avoid the risk of spoiling the plot, that's as far as I'll go. Suffice to say that Ms. Carlyle is kept busy and her acumen in reading people comes in handy.I've really enjoyed this series so far. Rimington has a background in British intelligence, so the spy stuff has a ring of authenticity to it. Carlyle is a really good character that I'm sure will be developed further in subsequent novels, and the supporting cast is well done. The writing is very good, and the dialogue is as well. The plot in Secret Asset is believable and concludes nicely. I liked the description of the post-mortem activities after the action wrapped up- it seems a lot of thrillers seem to end abruptly, but the reality is probably more like what's described in this situation.
    • 4/5
      Following the stressful operation detailed in At Risk, MI5 intelligence officer Liz Caryle had been on extended leave. Almost the first message she receives on her return is an urgent communication from one of her agents, who has garnered what seems to be very valuable information about a potential terrorist threat. Meanwhile, she has also been assigned, at the specific request of the Director General, to conduct a covert investigation following evidence suggesting the possibility that a ‘mole’ may have infiltrated the service a few years previously.Stella Rimington manages the two plot threads very capably, Liz Carlyle is a very plausible character: driven by a fierce integrity, yet sufficiently far from any pinnacle of unassailable rectitude to alienate the readers. Both plotlines are well constructed, and lead to an exciting denouement, but one that never slips beyond reality. Of course, with her own long background in the Intelligence services, no one is better suited to judge how far to push the boundaries of espionage fiction.This is another sound addition to the spy fiction canon, and establishes Liz Carlyle as one of the leading spyfinders.
    • 4/5
      standard Liz Carlyle (MI5) murder/terrorists with a little twist at the end. IRA mole in MI5 turned to Islamic terrorists. 2007.
    • 5/5
      The second in the Liz Carlyle series and better than the first. Liz is tasked with looking for a sleeper IRA mole within MI5 and, at the same time, her asset at the Islamic bookstore reports the arrival of an extremist imam. Liz knows that the mole went to Oxford at a particular time and so this narrows the suspects to five. She and an agent seconded from MI6 dig into their pasts, applications and referees. The identity of the mole is gradually revealed in a way which encourages the reader to puzzle it out too. I liked the finale in Oxford: all the landmarks, streets and buildings referred to are familiar to me.Slight detractions: my copy has proof-reading issues (which a previous library borrower has helpfully marked) and it's "shoo-in", not "shoe-in". Maguire's character just sorted of faded out. Also, it seemed odd to me that Liz had no scruples about investigating her best friend in the service and a man she was considering sleeping with - conflict surely!
    • 3/5
      The second in the series (I've read book 3) and this time Liz in on the trail of a mole in MI5. this one was planted by the IRA and it's the death of an IRA hardliner that brings the case to light in the first place. The list of possible suspects is narrowed down and Liz heads off in search of them. Alongside this, there's a Muslim terrorist cell of 3 who are on the loose, being found at a bookshop, but them being lost and found and lost again. I like the way that you see inside the MI5 team, but also the details of the outside world. So a chapter on the cell is often told via their interaction with other people (the neighbours, the farmer, the policeman) rather than necessarily from them. I took a guess at the mole ahead of the reveal, but I suspect you're supposed to manage to come to that conclusion ahead of the reveal - make you feel smug for a couple of chapters that you're ahead of the game. And as you have additional information, I also knew why and guessed the target as well. But again, the breadcrumbs are there, so i can't claim ace detecting skills or anything. It's pacy, and not too lightweight. I listened to this in the car and it's a good listen in that environment.
    • 3/5
      Took a while to get into the characters but the second two thirds was pretty engaging. Similar to the TV show Spooks.
    • 4/5
      Written by the former head of MI5, it is an enjoyable read but not5 so gripping as Tinker, Tailor by John le Carre
    • 4/5
      A well-written contemporary spy story, written with an eye to authentic (at least sounding) detail, as you'd expect. However, it didn't quite come off for me, although entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Very authentic. I wish she wrote faster.