Sort of ruined this for myself by watching the excellent TV adaptation first. Impossible not to see Gary Oldman every time Jackson Lamb appears, and the plot is (largely) the same. However, it's still very good. The basic idea that the "security services" are a mass of incompetents intriguing against each other by conjuring threats where none exist and then shifting blame for their own inevitable failures remains both pleasing and correct. The writing is moderately literary, but not in an offensive way.