Book Review - Into a Raging Blaze by Andreas Norman. An honest person whose life is about to be turned upside down and destroyed by a dishonest world

Carina Dymek is a career civil servant, aspiring to be a diplomat.  Astute, highly intelligent and committed, she’s dedicated to her job and focused on promotion.  Perhaps her only fault is a forthright honesty, which is where the trouble starts.  After a diplomatic meeting in Brussels, “Jean” approaches her and gives her a USB stick containing a confidential proposal for a European Intelligence Service.  Uncertain of what to do, she does the right thing by emailing her superiors asking them to sort out the problem. 

What a mistake!  Dymek’s actions open a Pandora’s Box out of which come the CIA, British Intelligence and the Swedish Security service.  Dymek is flagged up as a leak, a security risk and with a boyfriend called Jamal, even though he’s a career civil servant too, there has to be a terrorist connection!  Dymek is then thrust “into a raging blaze” as she becomes a target for out of control intelligence operatives, anxious to neutralise this non existent terrorist threat to make sure that their plans for an unaccountable Europe wide Intelligence Service aren’t derailed.  Dymek is helpless in the face of this onslaught and the scene of Dymek’s rendition is truly frightening.  I’ll never look at a bucket in the same way again

The story has a slow start, but it’s an utterly plausible book which shows that once doubts are expressed about someone, they gain an unstoppable momentum.  It was also interesting to read this book after interviewing Anders De La Motte, who questioned how data and information is widely used and often misused.  In this novel, the intelligence services only believe what they want and what suits their agenda, using a narrative based on ill-informed data driven guesswork. 

A long time ago a friend told me how he felt grubby after reading an espionage novel.  This one is the same and even Bente Jensen, who is the only person with the intelligence and guts to question and challenge what’s happening to Dymek ends up making what I’m sure readers will see as immoral compromises in the name of national security. 

Final verdict – a good first time thriller that’s definitely worth reading.

Romancrimeblogger