Into a Raging Blaze

In September 2011, things are going well for Carina Dymek. The intelligent, determined young woman has expertly carried out her duties as EU Coordinator for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A promotion is likely any day now. She's moved past her divorce and found true love in the arms of Jamal Badawi, an Egyptian-Swedish national. And she's been chosen to represent Sweden at an international meeting in Brussels on joint security policy. But she gets far more than she bargained for at the conference, when a nervous-looking man who only identifies himself as "Jean" approaches her during the lunch break outside and presses a USB drive. Carina is shocked and disturbed by what the contents of the letter reveal: High-level plans for a new pan-European intelligence service, bound by few if any national laws or international rules of conduct -its objectives are equally questionable, with a clear agenda to curb foreign immigration into the EU, and freely violate civil rights for the sake of pre-empting Arab terrorism. When Carina dutifully presents the documents to her superiors at the MFA, they are not happy. Before long Carina is suspended, escorted from the building by security, and under investigation by SAPO, Sweden's Intelligence Agency. Initially SAPO agent Bente Jensen--another strong, resourceful woman--focuses on the question of how a rank-and-file MFA employee obtained this ticking time bomb of intelligence. This gripping debut novel captures the ways in which spies and diplomats are occasionally swept up into the grinding gears of international intelligence operations--often with devastating human costs.