Slim Parsons is all but burned. When her last deep-cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet, she went on the run from her deadly target – a conniving businessman and money launderer codenamed “Hagfish.” Now she’s back at home, in hiding from her angry bosses in the Security Service, who have accused her of being overly violent and unsuitable for the role of an MI5 operative.

But after several months off the grid, Slim is called back to another job – Operation Linesman – where she is asked to infiltrate a news website Middle Kingdom whose explosive articles clearly show that they’ve hacked into the most high-security government databases. She accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother.

But Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Slim uncovers a curious connection between the Middle Kingdom hackers and the legendary Bletchley Park codebreakers. Her new colleagues are becoming suspicious of her intentions, and Hagfish is out for revenge and threatening MI5 itself as it all comes together in a shocking crescendo.

And all the while she is being watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.

Praise for Henry Porter:

“Henry Porter is one of our most accomplished thriller writers.”—Financial Times

“Magnificent . . . [Porter] has learned the oldest lesson: that characterization and narrative are all.”—The Economist, on Remembrance Day

“A powerful, propulsive piece of thriller writing.”—The Observer, on Remembrance Day

“Credible and thrilling . . . a memorable addition to his field.”—Daily Telegraph, on Remembrance Day

“Henry Porter writes fabulous novels . . . A spy novel for everyone who loves le Carré and Deighton, but with a crisp modern woman in charge. You won’t put this novel down until the final paragraph.”—Globe & Mail (Canada), on The Bell Ringers

“A topnotch Cold War thriller… [a] tour de force on a par with John le Carré.”—Library Journal (starred review), on Brandenburg Gate

“An espionage master.”—Charles Cumming

“Henry Porter is one of our most accomplished thriller writers. As a Fleet Street veteran with an eye for news, he mixes current affairs with precisely engineered storytelling and complex, rounded characters.”—Financial Times

“British espionage fiction is the best in the world, and Porter is part of the reason why.”—Lee Child

“Henry Porter has fast become one of the masters of the genre.”—Sunday Telegraph (UK)