A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet ‘a female agent for our times’, disgraced MI5 operative Slim Parsons.
‘SURPRISING, ENGROSSING, WITH A BLAZING MORAL ENERGY’ Rory Stewart
‘READS LIKE IT WAS DRAWN FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES‘ Paul Vidich
‘ONE OF BRITAIN’S FINEST SPY WRITERS’ Daily Mail
Slim Parsons is all but burned.
Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she’s bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the role of an MI5 operative.
Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that’s causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother.
Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision.
And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.
‘SURPRISING, ENGROSSING, WITH A BLAZING MORAL ENERGY’ Rory Stewart
‘READS LIKE IT WAS DRAWN FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES‘ Paul Vidich
‘ONE OF BRITAIN’S FINEST SPY WRITERS’ Daily Mail
Slim Parsons is all but burned.
Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she’s bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the role of an MI5 operative.
Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that’s causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother.
Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision.
And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.
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Reviews
Enjoyable, beautifully written, surprising and engrossing, with a blazing moral energy
The rarest of political thrillers - well written, fast paced, with an undercover MI5 protagonist who is forced to make very human choices. A smart thriller - it reads like it was drawn from today's headlines
Porter is a master of the modern spy thriller. In Slim Parsons he has created a female agent for our times. The action packed storyline is taut with tension. A tour de force!
Porter ... knows his way around both the corridors of power and the new media. [He] delivers another in a series of smart, timely reads
Fastmoving, affecting ... touches on contemporary issues, from people trafficking and modern slavery to money's role in corrupting the powerful
Porter draws on his journalistic experience in this riveting, deeply researched novel about the heirs to the Bletchley Park codebreakers, corruption, the role of AI, and state overreach
Dickensian in the size and diversity of its cast ... yet it never forgets to be an exhilarating thriller
Porter has established himself as one of Britain's finest spy writers, and here his supremely elegant talent is on full display
This superbly twist laden novel [is]the work of a wholly individual and readable talent ...
Porter's compelling new espionage novel is the quite the achievement, pulling together a bewildering number of threads