Sunday, June 6, 2010

Dead Line-Stella Rimington

Dead Line
Stella Rimington
Knopf, Jun 29 2010, $25.95
ISBN: 9780307272546

M16 Agent Templeton in Cyprus reports that a contact Abboud insists Syrian deputy director of dreaded Idarat al-Mukhabarat Tibshirani believes that a London based Lebanese expatriate Sami Veshara and Chris Marcham intend to devastate the upcoming Middle East peace conference being held in Scotland. Disrupting efforts is expected by most counterterrorist groups, but what makes this allegation different is that the credit (and consequently the blame) will be given to Syria. With the leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran participating, MI5 officer Liz Carlyle is assigned to investigate the plausibility and if affirmed who they belong to.

As she follows leads, Liz fears time is running out. Clues either go nowhere or lead to more questions. She begins to revise her theory from these two nonentities to hypothesize whether the original source is using a ploy to cause some other unknown havoc although why remains out of reach. Liz knows a major incident could lead to devastating chaos in the Middle East and the end of peace negotiations for years to come.

This is a great espionage thriller that readers will fully appreciate. Thirtyish Liz is at her best in her latest tale (see At Risk, Illegal Action and Secret Asset) trying to connect dots that not only do not link but add more points to the increasingly convoluted equation. Readers will join Liz as she races to prevent a disaster but by whom and why remain just outside her analysis.

Harriet Klausner

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