ŷ������

Alice “Slim�� Parsons is a third-generation spy (she learns on her mother’s deathbed). She works for MI5 as an undercover operative as a large operation is launched at a rich and amoral Briton. When, having emerged as the businessman’s chief aid, he tries to rape her, she fights back, injures him, escapes and flees with his highly incriminating laptop. Her MI5 masters lash out but reassign her as an undercover agent with a very liberal journalistic team that is investigating massive corruption within the British government. She is very good at both investigative journalism and living on the very edge. The two assignments dovetail (dangerously for Slim) but she is resourceful, determined, and brave and continues, though at great risk, to a successful ending.

Along the way, Porter introduces more than two dozen distinctly drawn characters. It is a dense book, but worth the time and concentration. I liked it a great deal, even the parallel scenes involving dangerous airplane flights with maniac.