• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2008 May #1
  This is the third entry in the British spy series by Rimington, herself a former director general of MI5, featuring the smart and daring intelligence-operative Liz Carlyle. Along with her sidekick, Peggy Kingsolving, Carlyle has been transferred to the Counter-Espionage division, which, in the terrorist-obsessed modern world, is no longer the plum assignment it was during the height of East-West rivalries. She is surprised to find that there are more spies lurking around the current London scene than there were during the cold war—no longer in pursuit of military intelligence but the rich stakes of the global business community. After discovering a plot to assassinate a Russian billionaire, Nikita Brunovsky, who has been strident in his public criticism of Vladimir Putin, Carlyle goes undercover as a member of the financier's entourage only to find herself in danger from a Russian spy who is also masquerading as an innocuous associate of Brunovsky. Elements of the old-fashioned spy novel—sudden twists and characters with hidden agendas—combine with James Patterson's secret to success (short chapters) to create an ideal beach read for the upcoming vacation season. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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. Rimington lives in London.