I was a latecomer to the "Slow Horses" series on AppleTV+, but once I got into it, I gobbled up all four seasons pretty quickly. So now I'm awaiting season five, and started in on Mick Herron's book series. This one was the basis of the TV show's second season.
The plot is decidedly twisty. Dickie Bow, an ex-MI5 spy catches sight of an old ex-Soviet nemesis, decides to tail him, and… winds up dead. The official story is "heart attack", but Jackson Lamb is suspicious enough to track Dickie's last moments, finding a phone Dickie (apparently) stashed, which contains the text "CICADAS".
Which indicates, possibly, the presence of a Soviet "sleeper cell" somewhere in England. But where, and who?
No big surprises, though, if you've watched the show. Mick Herron continues to impress with his prose: very observant, often hilarious, sometimes poignant. Sometimes I get put off by what I call "Look, Mom, I'm writing!" unnecessarily florid style. But Herron pulls it off.
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