#WWWWednesday – 13th November 2024

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway (ARC, Penguin)Karla's Choice

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy.

But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy…

Eye of the RavenEye of the Raven by Tim Hodkinson (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

For the first time, Einar and the Wolf Coats find themselves divided, on opposing sides in a time of warfare: the Wolf Coats in Ireland, and Einar in the Saxon domains of England.

Einar leads a warband for King Aethelstan, but struggles to find acceptance as a Norseman in Saxon lands. Can he truly make common cause with the wily king of the English, if that means Vikings like himself are now his enemies? The rewards of alliance with Aethelstan could be all he desires… or a brutal death.

But other threats loom from the north and west. With war brewing and a great battle on the horizon, can Einar and his comrades reunite in time – or will a clash for the ages make their split a permanent one?

How To Solve Your Own MurderHow To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin (audiobook, Quercus)

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.


Recently finished

The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter (Quercus)

This Is Happiness by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber)


What Cathy Will Read Next

Time of the ChildTime of the Child by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury via NetGalley) 

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.

His youngest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love – and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Book Review – The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter @QuercusBooks

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter. My thanks to Sophie and Poppy at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Quercus for my review copy via NetGalley.


About the Book

Book cover of The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter

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 roll 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.

Format: Hardback (496 pages) Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 7th November 2024 Genre: Thriller

Find The Enigma Girl on Goodreads

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My Review

You could be forgiven for thinking when you start the book that you’re reading the latest in a series because Slim’s just finished a dangerous undercover mission. The action she was forced to take to ensure her own safety during that mission has landed her in hot water with her superiors. With her cover blown, it’s meant she’s had to go to earth – quite literally – and she fears her career may be ancient history. She also just happened to make off with something that a very dangerous enemy would like to have back.

With the previous operation seemingly closed down, she’s assigned to a new undercover role that starts out looking innocuous but turns out to be anything but. It becomes a battle between press freedom, civil liberty and government control of information. And perhaps that previous operation isn’t so dead after all?

At nearly 500 pages, you might think the author would have a job maintaining the pace of a thriller but he throws in plenty of action scenes during which Slim proves just what a ferocious, fearless and resourceful opponent she is, fashioning weapons out of anything to hand. She’s also adept at the tradecraft of a spy: dodging surveillence, juggling multiple identities, disappearing off the radar and generally keeping her wits about her. As a reader, you’ll need to keep your wits about you as well because there are quite a lot of characters to get to know and keep track of.

Some of the buildings used for wartime code-breaking at Bletchley Park feature in the story but it’s modern code-breaking technology that ultimately provides the vital information about just exactly what’s been going on. And those goings-on include things such as people trafficking, modern slavery, money laundering, bribery and corruption. What also gives the plot such a contemporary feel is that Slim’s adversary is a billionaire with dubious morals and friends in high places. (Recent real-life examples may come to mind.)

There’s always a danger that the hero/heroine of a spy thriller will come across as a little one-dimensional – all action and no inner life. There’s no chance of that here because Slim has a complex private life and is facing some very difficult personal challenges. She may be ruthless when it comes to her job and give the impression of complete self-dependence, but she needs love and support just like everyone else. And perhaps someone to watch over her…

Slim Parsons has been likened to Lisbeth Salander, the fictional character created by Stieg Larsson. Lisbeth had more than one outing so perhaps The Enigma Girl is not the last we’ll see of Slim?

In three words: Taut, intricate, suspenseful
Try something similar: The Traitor by Ava Glass


About the Author

Author Henry Porter

Henry Porter was a regular columnist for the Observer and now writes about European power and politics for The Hive website in the US. He has written several bestselling thrillers, including Brandenburg, which won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, A Spy’s Life and Empire State, which were both nominated for the same award. He is also the author of the Paul Samson spy thrillers: Firefly, which won the 2019 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, and White Hot Silence. Henry Porter is frequently described as the heir to John le Carré. He lives in London. (Bio: Publisher author page/Photo: X profile)

Connect with Henry
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