Don't know why the book is titled 'Rip Tide', although there are ships and some action takes place on the sea. Apart from the title, it is quite an enjoyable read. The plot is not too complicated. and Rimington writes in a way that creates suspense. Plus she was an ex-MI5 officer, so there should be some credulity to the plot. ( )

Liz Carlyle, Stella Rimington’s engaging and resourceful MI5 officer makes a welcome return. Now back on the mainland after her brief posting to Northern Ireland, she finds herself picking up the investigation into the involvement of a young British national who was captured by a French Navy patrol boat when it came to the rescue of a freight ship being attacked by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. While the prisoner maintains a stoical silence, closer investigation into his background reveals that he had, until fairly recently, been a regular attendee at a mosque in Birmingham that had already caught the attention of local Special Branch officers.

As relevant now as it when it was first published ten years ago (which was ten years after the attack on the World TraceCentre sparked the War Against Terror in earnest), the story follows the intelligence services’ concerns about the risk of radicalisation. Dame Stella obviously know her stuff – she was, after all, Director General of MI5 (and one would like to think that many of Liz Carlyle’s quality reflect the author herself). Indeed, my own sister was vetted by her forty years ago when they were both based in the UK’s diplomatic community in Brussels.

Stella Rimington’s novels plot a course somewhere between the grim, bleak and somewhat shabby world inhabited by the characters of John le Carre’s world, and the hedonistic and hi tech romps of Ian Fleming. She does not offer the glorious prose of le Carre, nor his searing exploration of the human condition, but she does promise her reads compelling characters and plausible plots.

One of the prevailing themes is the occasionally strained relationships between the various intelligence organisations. While it is only natural that the agencies of other countries might have differing, and even diametrically opposed, objectives to their British counterparts (and in this book we find the American and French intelligence organisations participating), we also regularly encounter conflicts within the British secret community, with MI5 and MI6 treading on each other’s toes.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable story, leaving me keen to read the next in the sequence. ( )

#6 in the series. Liz has gone full-circle and is now back in counter-terrorism, liaising with France. Thankfully little mention of the elusive Charles. Set partly in Athens and partly in London/Birmingham (so nothing to do with Liz you'd think) the story centres on a UK charity transporting aid by sea from Greece to Kenya. The charity's ships start being attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia only when the cargo is especially valuable and the CEO suspects a staff member of betrayal.

Reasonably sensible, although [SPOILERS] it is surely stretching credibility that the CEO of the charity in London is ex-MI6 and his counterpart in Greece is ex-CIA. Also, I wonder if an extremist mosque would really use a blonde white women to incite recruits to jihad? ( )

Started January 6th, 2014.
Great, as always. Romance, but not too much and work is more important, for once a nice change in comparison to other books.
I really prefer it this way as it is done here, not people concentrating on their private (love-) life and hating their job.
Also the description of working together with people who are not always free of faults or downright unlikeable is great. Not everything is black or white, mostly it is shades of grey and fittingly enough the story has a few loose ends and people who escaped.
More action in this book, so for most part a good page-turner.
Not quite 5 stars, missing is more insight in the spooks-intellegence-world.
Nonetheless highly recommended. ( )

Another page turner from the Liz Carlyle series by Stella Rimington. Very enjoyable. ( )