Dame Stella Rimington was formerly Director General of the Security Service (MI5), the first woman to take the post and the first person to be publicly named while in office.
"When Dame Judi Dench plays super-cool spy chief "M" in the James Bond movies, she's tough as nails and has a woman's intuition.
When Dame Stella Rimington took over Britain's super-secret MI5 security service, she was the first woman ever to hold the top spy post -- and a tough, cool player herself. Dench's model, we're told, for "M."
Now Stella Rimington is out of the spy game, but still very much in the world, writing thrillers that catch the new tang of Russian oligarchs and post-Cold War skullduggery."
Meet Dame Stella Rimington Friday, July 18 at 7 pm at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore where she will talk and sign her new book Illegal Action the new installment in Stella Rimington’s series of “frighteningly authentic” espionage thrillers (Chicago Tribune) featuring the fiercely intelligent, ambitious MI5 officer Liz Carlyle.
Liz has been transferred to counter-espionage—the hub of MI5 operations during the Cold War, which has been scaled back as anti-terrorism has gained priority. But there’s plenty for her to do: there are more spies operating in London in the twenty-first century than there were during the height of East-West hostilities. Even the Russians still have a large contingent, although now they spy on the international financial community and on the wealthy ex-pat oligarchs who make England their domain.
In her new assignment, Liz quickly uncovers a plot to silence one of these Russians: Nikita Brunovsky, an increasingly vocal opponent of Vladimir Putin. The Foreign Office is adamant about forestalling a crime that could become a full-blown international incident, but there’s not a single clue as to how the assassination will be carried out—and Liz is solely responsible for averting disaster. So she goes undercover, attaching herself to Brunovsky’s retinue: racing against the clock to determine who betrayed him and suddenly facing a wholly unexpected second task—unmasking a Russian operative working undercover alongside her.
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I've not heard of Stella Remington, but she and this book sound intriguing. I'll add her to my list of possibilities. Somewhat along the same lines is Bernard Steele and his new thriller "Death in Small Doses." He grew up outside the United States as well, and worked in law enforcement before migrating to America, which I think is interesting. His book involves terrorist forces, though not from Russia, as Dame Stella's are, but from the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fast-paced, action-filled read that those who enjoy thrillers will like.