Book of the Week 2 – At Risk , by Stella Rimington.

At Risk by Stella Rimington

At Risk

Stella Rimington was the first woman to be Director General of MI5, Britain’s counter-intelligence service, so far she is the only woman ever to have served in the post. It was ineveitable, I suppose, that she should take to writing espionage and terrorism books to earn a crust.

To my mind this genre can be divided into 2 groups. There are books by John Le Carre and then there is the rest. This book begins to change that grouping.

At Risk is the first in a series of books that have a main character called Liz Carlyle. Carlyle is probably a cypher for Rimington but then all characters in books relate to the author, or so they say. In any event Carlyle runs agents in the UK and becomes involved in the hunt for a terrorist that has come into the country. What makes the hunt more difficult is the fact that the terrorist does not fit the easy shorthand of being a foreigner or different. The terrorist appears to be an average, white British female.

For me the book was stilted when it started, looking back I think that was a product of what I expected. However the detail and pace of the book won me over. Not being a fan of coincidence or blind luck in books and their appearance in this book did strike a bad chord. However, not enough of one to stop me enjoying this book.

Le Carre is head and shoulders above the pack but I will read more in this series by Stella Rimington. I have no hesitation in recommending this book. It is a book that contains a lot of detail which shows that Rimington knows her stuff. At no time does she include so much detail that the reader feels that she is trying to prove herself. She does not need to do that.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Perhaps that will be a book of the week as well, I hope so.

You can order this book from the fine people at Amazon here;

At Risk

You can read the first of my Book of the Week blogs here