Imprint

  • Quercus

The Enigma Girl: A gripping spy thriller perfect for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey

Henry Porter

Formats & Editions

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 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.

Read More

Praise for The Enigma Girl: A gripping spy thriller perfect for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey

  • Enjoyable, beautifully written, surprising and engrossing, with a blazing moral energy - Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the EdgeThe 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 - Paul Vidich, author of Beirut StationPorter 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! - Jane Thynne, author of Midnight in ViennaDickensian in the size and diversity of its cast ... yet it never forgets to be an exhilarating thriller - Sunday Times Thriller of the Month

Read More
Henry Porter

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 CarrA . He lives in London.

More about Henry Porter

Related books