Paperback, 336 pages
Published Dec. 1, 2015 by Soho Crime, imusti.
Tom Bettany, a British ex-spy crammed with dark skills, comes out of retirement when he learns his estranged son is dead. His quest leads him to the shadowy Vincent Driscoll, head of the software-design firm Liam worked for, and to the bizarre Dame Ingrid Tearney, head of the Intelligence Service, who is either worried that Bettany will discover something better kept under wraps or else wants Bettany to do some dirty work on her behalf.
"Set in the same fictional London as his CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Slough House series, Mick Herron now introduces Tom Bettany, an ex-spook with a violent past and only one thing to live for: Avenging his son's death. Tom Bettany is working at a meat processing plant in France when he gets a voicemail from an Englishwoman he doesn't know telling him that his estranged 26-year-old son is dead--Liam Bettany fell from his London balcony, …
Tom Bettany, a British ex-spy crammed with dark skills, comes out of retirement when he learns his estranged son is dead. His quest leads him to the shadowy Vincent Driscoll, head of the software-design firm Liam worked for, and to the bizarre Dame Ingrid Tearney, head of the Intelligence Service, who is either worried that Bettany will discover something better kept under wraps or else wants Bettany to do some dirty work on her behalf.
"Set in the same fictional London as his CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Slough House series, Mick Herron now introduces Tom Bettany, an ex-spook with a violent past and only one thing to live for: Avenging his son's death. Tom Bettany is working at a meat processing plant in France when he gets a voicemail from an Englishwoman he doesn't know telling him that his estranged 26-year-old son is dead--Liam Bettany fell from his London balcony, where he was smoking dope. Now for the first time since he cut all ties years ago, Bettany returns home to London to find out the truth about his son's death. Maybe it's the guilt he feels about losing touch with his son that's gnawing at him, or maybe he's actually put his finger on a labyrinthine plot, but either way he'll get to the bottom of the tragedy, no matter whose feathers he has to ruffle. But more than a few people are interested to hear Bettany is back in town, from incarcerated mob bosses to those in the highest echelons of MI5. He might have thought he'd left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody really just walks away"--
Easy reading, but frankly not a patch of his brilliant Slow Horses series. This felt almost like a may as well do another along the same lines' approach
Easy reading, but frankly not a patch of his brilliant Slow Horses series. This fflet almost like a may as well do another along the same lines' approach.
Reviewed for Reviewing the Evidence and reposted with permission. returnreturnMick Herron is a terrifically smart and often wickedly funny writer. His two previous espionage novels, SLOW HORSES and DEAD LIONS (which won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of 2013) chronicle the doings of a dead-letter office for wayward spies who may have been officially put out to pasture by MI5 but are still able to get up to a lot of intrigue and mischief.returnreturnHis new novel is set in a darker, starker place. As it opens Tom Bettany is a working as a common laborer in an abattoir in France. His previous career as a spy was, perhaps, good preparation for the slaughterhouse. A phone call calls him back to London, and to a son who he hasn't seen in years. He manages to get home just in time for the cremation.returnreturnLiam Bettany had fallen off his …
Reviewed for Reviewing the Evidence and reposted with permission. returnreturnMick Herron is a terrifically smart and often wickedly funny writer. His two previous espionage novels, SLOW HORSES and DEAD LIONS (which won the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of 2013) chronicle the doings of a dead-letter office for wayward spies who may have been officially put out to pasture by MI5 but are still able to get up to a lot of intrigue and mischief.returnreturnHis new novel is set in a darker, starker place. As it opens Tom Bettany is a working as a common laborer in an abattoir in France. His previous career as a spy was, perhaps, good preparation for the slaughterhouse. A phone call calls him back to London, and to a son who he hasn't seen in years. He manages to get home just in time for the cremation.returnreturnLiam Bettany had fallen off his balcony, or so it seems. Bettany isn't so sure. In his experience, nothing is quite as it appears. Liam was smoking a new and potent kind of weed when he fell; is the drug, and the people who have introduced it to the market, responsible? Or is it something more complicated, something to do with Liam's job at a video game company? There's something off about the scene, something not right. All Bettany has left in his life is an urn full of ashes, a regret for a son he never really knew, and one question: what happened to him?returnreturnAs he seeks answers, using the skills that made him a legendary field operative in Northern Ireland and other dangerous places, his blunt and uncompromising investigation comes to the attention of two interested parties. One is a criminal who wants him dead; the other is Dame Ingrid Tearney of Intelligence Services who wants him to stop asking questions.returnreturnThose expecting the wild humor and ornate language games of Herron's previous spy novels may be disappointed â at first. Tom Bettany holds the narrative voice hostage, and he gets straight to the point. He offers no illusions about the organization he worked for. He's neither shaken or stirred, he's a bruised cynic of the John le Carré school of spycraft. Though there's nothing funny about this book, it provides ample proof that Herron is still a dab hand at knotting up a plot in complicated ways and he writes with uncommon grace about a man who has no illusions, other than pondering what kind of relationship he might have had with his son had things been different.
