Gavin Lyall had three phases in his life as a fiction writer. First, he wrote a series of thrillers (usually about aviation) starting with "The Wrong Side of the Sky" in 1961. In 1980 with "The Secret Servant" he introduced the four Harry Maxim novels about an Army security expert attached to 10 Downing Street. His final series began in 1993 with this book, and told the story of the birth of the modern British Secret Service, centred around an unlikely agent called Matthew Ranklin.

Ranklin is a likeable but troubled character, not very confident in his work and unsure about the morality of the way the Service operates but quick in thought and deed. In Corinna Finn, Lyall has given us another of his attractive and smart heroines, and doesn't neglect to describe her outfits in his usual detail.

The plot is perhaps a little too fast-paced but is just believable (thanks to Corinna's connections), and was clearly designed to lead into the others in the series. It's pity that he could only manage four of these books, but then who knows - he may have taken off in yet another direction. ( )