Close Call: A Liz Carlyle Novel (Liz Carlyle Novels Book 8)

Liz travels to Paris to try and infiltrate a group of Jihadist's set on targeting either Paris or London, they are not sure which. Intelligence comes in but the question is who to trust? Liz's partner Martin is again at the centre of her life and he is desperately trying to capture his once colleague and now arms dealer, when the opportunity comes along Martin and Liz grab it with both hands. Meanwhile, we have a potential cell forming in Manchester which brings Liz in touch with her old boyfriend McManus, a man who once thought police work was an excellent position to be in, but either greed or his own importance led him to set people up, and to stray into territory a policeman should not.We look at Jackson a nightclub owner in Manchester, who seems to have moved up and is now dabbling in firearms, but what part does he have to play in this? Has he really moved on from bringing girls illegally from other countries into this one ?When Peggy gets injured and requires an operation we may have missed the only link we will get to infiltrate the gang before they get to blow up Manchester.

If you enjoy action packed, page turning thrillers then I think you will enjoy Close Call. The plot really carries this story, especially if, like me, you have not been reading the stories in the order in which they have been published, so are less aware of the historical personal interactions of the main characters in the novel.This story focuses on the undercover search for a group of terrorists and their arms which are en-route to either France or Britain. As a result, a number of security agencies are involved, including the Americans. The question is what is their target and will the security services find them in time?Stella Rimington's style of writing makes is very easy to visualise the action scenes and the dialogue between the main characters adds a further element of authenticity to the plot.So, overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading more of the (earlier) stories featuring Liz Carlyle. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy to read, page-turning, thriller.

This starts off in a calm manner with Liz Carlyle's usual clear headed style of leadership taking things as they come in if you can ever feel really calm with the terror risk level as high as it is. Once the action starts to pick up, it is an excellent example of the risks that our security services run all the time with the knowledge that if they make one wrong decision they can be leading their teams down a completely wrong road. The fact that Stella Rimington has first hand knowledge of this work makes it all the more real and more tense than an author who is imagining what it must be like instead of knowing. As it gets towards the end, it is better to make sure you have made a sandwich so you don't starve as breaking off for food is not an option. It also leaves you with absolute gratitude to these people who do a job that must at times be thankless as anything averted is not known about by the general public but anything that happens is treated as if they are not doing an almost impossible job properly and we never have any idea of their personal suffering.

This will be the last one. I so wanted to like this series but the sad truth is they are unremarkable tosh and the standard has steadily gone down. To give a bit of an edge in this one the author has killed off our heroine’s lover. Boo hoo.The last straw for me was the repeated reference near the end to petrol in the lorry carrying the arms. Could nobody in the publishing team have pointed out that diesel is the fuel in lorries? So annoyed that I stuck with these books, but no more. The only good thing about the book is exploding dogs are mercifully absent.

Good plot that kept you guessing. Lots of human interest with relationships between the main characters which didn't all end well. A very credible story line that is all too familiar post 9/11 but the various factors that were involved in different locations finally came together but you have to wait till the end of the book. Another enjoyable read from this talented author, I look forward to reading the next book now.

Another entertaining yarn from Stella Rimmington, former spy master. Seeing the return of Liz Carlyle and colleagues. Based on a rogue French spy's forays into arms dealings, and a shifty Yemeni, a Cheshire nightclub owner, this novel is pacey, and carries the authenticity of the writer's inside knowledge. It fails for me in that the conclusion seems a bit rushed, however, still a good read!

Very plausible story. The characters are not superman-type heroes and the story contains occasion flurries of action-packed excitement but no gratuitous deaths/ murders. We get an insight into what I expect makes up a large portion of secret service work - plodding through clues, relying on instinct, long observation of suspects, following up seemingly unimportant lines and understanding how people tick.In the end, group of young men - jihadists - are arrested in a house in Eccles before they manage a planned attack.What made my blood run cold is that there was news on the BBC about two days after I finished reading the book: a group of young men - jihadists - were arrested in a house in High Wycombe.Extremely plausible story.