This is the seventh installment in the series about Jackson Lamb and his slow horses. A spy novel in which the author explores the power struggles within MI5 and with the government. Everyone is fighting for power, and each character seeks ways to blackmail their opponents. The humor is dark, and the action jumps from one setting to another, leaving the reader in suspense about what will happen in each location.
Even at Slough House, MI5’s most insignificant outpost, Brexit is taking its toll: the entire building has been erased from official records, along with its occupants. Still reeling from recent casualties in their ranks, the slow horses fear they have been further marginalized, and fatal accidents keep occurring.
With a new populist movement taking to the streets of London, the fallout from a Russian intelligence blunder that left a British citizen dead, and the old guard making sure everything goes to the highest bidder, the world is an uncomfortable place for those deemed expendable. The sensible thing would be to find a safe place and wait for the trouble to pass. But the slow horses aren’t exactly known for making sensible decisions.
This is a work of fiction featuring characters who lack principles and have no ideal of serving society. Nor do they have families. The author depicts immoral behavior without explicit descriptions.