A Cold War era veteran agent is discovered dead in mysterious circumstances leaving only a one word cryptic message behind. Meanwhile an ambitious agent is running an off the books op to recruit a Russian oligarch using two patsies from Slough House as plausibly deniable security. Could these two things be linked? Well, it’s pretty obvious that the two plot lines will overlap, but writer Mick Herron teases the how and why for long enough to make for other entertaining helping of down at heel spycraft hokum.
The second book in the Slough House series continues the high standard set by the first one. There are some genuinely surprising twists here, even if the main conceit veers towards the rather unlikely. Jackson Lamb is a great central character, with his shabby demeanour making George Smiley look like James Bond. The other inmates of Slough House are also given a chance to shine (relatively speaking) and the threads at the end are tied up satisfactorily.
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