Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. She has written her autobiography and several Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

CIA agent Miles Brookhaven was attacked in a souk while infiltrating rebel groups in the area. No one was certain if his cover had been blown or if the act was just an arbitrary attack on Westerners. Months later, the incident remains a mystery.

Now, Liz Carlyle and her Counter Terrorism unit in MI5 have been charged with the task of observing the international under-the-counter arms trade. With the Arabic region in such a volatile state, British Intelligence forces have become increasing concerned that extremist Al-Qaeda jihadis are building their power base, ready to launch another attack. As the pressure mounts, Liz and her team must intercept illegal weapons before they get into the wrong hands.

But when MI5 learns that the source of the arms deals is located in Western Europe, Liz finds herself on a manhunt that leads her to Paris, to Berlin and into her own long-forgotten past.

A past buried so deep that she thought it would never resurface . . .

She bids to join the ranks of such secret-agent authors as Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene and John le Carré

A wealth of persuasive detail, obviously drawn from first-hand experience

This is something rare: the spy novel that prizes authenticity over fabrication that is true to the character and spirit of intelligence work

For a pacy page-turner, she's a safe bet . . . Rimington is particularly strong in her accounts of procedure, unsurprisingly, given her past role as Head of MI5

Faster than Le Carré, she creates the same sense of real characters struggling with real problems

Liz Carlyle is an MI5 agent with the traditional thriller-heroine mix of dysfunctional personal life and steely ambition

Rimington's best work demonstrates a flair for narrative, with a sense of authenticity and an insider's grasp on the pressing issues of the day

Rich with authentic details from Rimington's own life as director general of MI5, this is a must-read for fans of contemporary spy fiction