Illegal Action

Starred review from May 12, 2008
MI5 officer Liz Carlyle tries to make the best of it after she's unwillingly transferred from counterterrorism to counterespionage in Rimington's excellent third novel (after Secret Asset
). Assigned to a case involving a rich Moscow oligarch living in London, Liz quickly realizes that there's considerable evidence the oligarch's been targeted for death by someone in Russia—perhaps with the assistance of the Russian government, perhaps not. Matters become more complicated when it becomes evident Liz herself may wind up a target. Rimington's command of espionage and counterespionage history and techniques (derived from long personal experience at the same British agency as Carlyle's) enables her to bring enormous believability to her well-paced narrative. Her dialogue moves as swiftly as the action, and her characters are as believable as the world in which they—and we—live. Fans of intelligent spy thrillers are in for a treat. Author tour.

May 1, 2008
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 warno 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 financiers 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 novelsudden twists and characters with hidden agendascombine with James Pattersons secret to success (short chapters) to create an ideal beach read for the upcoming vacation season.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)