Dead Line

From Publishers WeeklyIn Rimington's fine fourth spy thriller to feature MI5 officer Liz Carlyle (after Illegal Asset), the 35-year-old counterespionage agent takes the lead in unraveling disturbing intelligence received from MI6 regarding a plot to disrupt an upcoming Middle East peace conference in Scotland. According to a Syrian source, a Lebanese businessman living in London and a freelance journalist are suspected of planning to lay the blame for the projected attack on Syria. With the high-profile conference quickly approaching, every clue raises more questions for Liz, who begins to wonder if the intelligence wasn't all just disinformation. Liz's intuition proves correct when she uncovers an ingenious conspiracy that, if successful, could throw the entire Middle East into chaos. Rimington, the former director general of MI5, can be a bit methodical at points, but the impressively Ludlumesque plot will keep readers blissfully turning the pages until the end. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistRimington brings a great deal of credibility to her espionage thrillers—she worked in MI,5, Britain’s intelligence agency, for 27 years and was serving as director general of the agency at the time of her retirement in 1996. She has mined that experience in an autobiography published in the UK, Open Secret (2001), and three previous spy novels starring MI5 officer Liz Carlyle. This time Carlyle is the pivot point for a tale involving a plot to disrupt an upcoming Mideast peace conference in Gleneagles, Scotland. Much of the novel constitutes MI5’s build-up to the conference. What could be tedious in another author’s hands is absolutely sweat-inducing in Rimington’s, as she guides readers through the terrorist plot, the intelligence counterplot, and the protocol involved in staging a conference. A secondary story line stems from Carlyle herself—an old friend asks her to check out the young admirer of the mother-in-law, who may be involved in Israeli intelligence. Fast moving, engrossing, and well constructed. --Connie Fletcher