I guess I was feeling too pollyannish about Great Britain, or something, so I turned to the fifth book in Mick Herron's "Slow Horses" series. (Also the basis for the most recent season of the TV show.) That cleared things right up. The gang's all here, at least the surviving members of Jackson Lamb's dysfunctional team.
A small team of bad guys are looking to terrorize the Brits, and they kick things off by shooting a bunch of civilians in a small English village. Their identities and motives are unknown to the more respectable wing of MI5. But one of the Slough House team, the technically adept, but socially clueless Roddy Ho, seems to have a connection: against all odds, he's managed to snag a foxy girlfriend. And he escapes assassination only by (barely) being saved by Shirley Dander, another Slow Horse, with drug and anger issues.
The book's ultra-cynical take: the "respectable" pols and spies are concerned mostly with how to turn their response to their political/bureaucratic advantage (or avoid it being turned to their disadvantage). Jackson Lamb's main goal is to preserve his team against all odds; if this manages to thwart the terrorist team, all the better.
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