The Enigma Girl
A gripping spy thriller perfect for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey
Published on 22. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
496 pages
978-1-5294-0335-0 (ISBN)
Description
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.
'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.
Reviews / Votes
Enjoyable, beautifully written, surprising and engrossing, with a blazing moral energy * Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge * 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 * Paul Vidich, author of Beirut Station * 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! * Jane Thynne, author of Midnight in Vienna * Porter ... knows his way around both the corridors of power and the new media. [He] delivers another in a series of smart, timely reads * Financial Times * Fastmoving, affecting ... touches on contemporary issues, from people trafficking and modern slavery to money's role in corrupting the powerful * Literary Review * 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 * Saga magazine * Dickensian in the size and diversity of its cast ... yet it never forgets to be an exhilarating thriller * Sunday Times Thriller of the Month * Porter has established himself as one of Britain's finest spy writers, and here his supremely elegant talent is on full display * Daily Mail * This superbly twist laden novel [is]the work of a wholly individual and readable talent ... * Observer * Porter's compelling new espionage novel is the quite the achievement, pulling together a bewildering number of threads * Mail on Sunday *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
344 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5294-0335-0 (9781529403350)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Henry Porter
The Enigma Girl
A gripping spy thriller perfect for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey
E-Book
11/2024
Quercus
€6.49
Available for download
Person
Henry Porter was a newspaper columnist for the Observer and former London editor of Vanity Fair. He has written several acclaimed and bestselling thrillers, including Brandenburg, which won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, A Spy's Life and Empire State, 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; White Hot Silence and The Old Enemy. Henry Porter is frequently described as the heir to John le Carre. He lives in Paddington, London.