STELLA RIMINGTON chats to Paul about zeitgeisty new thriller THE HIDDEN HAND, the Chinese threat, Liz Carlyle, Manon Tyler, MI5, retirement, sexism, James Bond and John Buchan.

THE HIDDEN HAND: A historic institution is hiding a very modern threat.
The student - Li Min, a Chinese student, is forced by her government to transfer from Harvard to Oxford University, where she is recruited to an elite Chinese study centre based out of St Felix's College.
The scapegoat - Meanwhile, the centre's newly recruited head stumbles on its more sinister purpose: recruiting Chinese and sympathetic British students to steal high-value research and intellectual property. Unsure who at the university he can trust, he turns to CIA agent Manon Tyler for help.
The spy who might be their only hope...But as Li and another Chinese-American student are drawn deeper into a deadly game, will Manon be able to penetrate the heart of St Felix's secrets in time to save them?

Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. She has written her autobiography and six Liz Carlyle novels. She lives in London and Norfolk.

Recommendations: Dorothy L Sayers novels, George Simenon - Maigret novels, Rudyard Kipling - Kim, JK Rowling Striker series.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

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