Mitchell Berger who has lived in most places in the world, is now living in Athens and co-ordinating aid for the charity UCSO. A call that an aid ship bound for Mombasa had been subject to a hijacking attempt, but which had been foiled by a French Navy patrol is, on the face of it, good news. However this is the third hijacking of an aid ship and Mitchell surmises that it is no chance attack, as, like the earlier two hijackings, this particular aid ship was carrying unusually expensive cargo. With a sigh Mitchell telephones the London Headquarters of UCSO and alerts his boss David Blakey to the problem. An ex-MI6 officer David decides to have a chat with an old colleague.

Meanwhile, the problem reaches MI5 Officer Liz Carlyle by a different route as the French Navy who captured the pirates have found that one of the gang has a British passport. Would Liz like to question the prisoner? During the decade that Liz Carlyle has been in MI5 things have changed dramatically following 9/11. So a British citizen of Pakistani descent in a gang of Somali pirates raises a red flag.

As Liz investigates the background of the prisoner Amir Khan, and tries to make sense of the chain that has resulted in Amir being part of a pirate gang, a separate prong of attack is being put in place in Greece.

Whilst the investigation steps up, Liz and her team try to get a handle on the facts and information that they are uncovering; the behind the scenes politics and relationships inside MI5 and MI6 prove equally fascinating and on a personal level Liz is currently enjoying a relationship with a French counterpart, but can relationships ever stand still?

RIP TIDE is an exciting entry in this excellent series, and is recommended.