Pun Salad

I decided I was due for another entry in Mick Herron's "Slow Horses" series. This one is kind of a downer, and ends on kind of a cliffhanger. Caveat Lector.

There are a lot of plot threads to follow here.

A new Slow Horse has been added to Jackson Lamb's stable, Lech Wicinski, tossed out of the MI5 "Center" when kiddie porn was found on his laptop. He maintains innocence, and is bitterly resentful of his demotion.

River Cartwright's grandfather, the Old Bastard, has died; showing up at the outskirts of his internment is River's dad, Frank Harkness, a loose bad-guy cannon from a previous book.

And Catherine is buying alcohol again, thanks to a previous book's revelations.

This one's a little complicated: Lucas, son of Min Harper, a Slow Horse who got killed back in book #2, has gone missing. His mother is very worried, and asks that Louisa Guy, Min's lover, track him down.

Lady Di Taverner is now First Desk, the post she's always wanted. One of her first actions is to fire Emma Flyte, head of the "Dogs", the Center's internal security branch. Emma doesn't even rate Slough House!

Enough? I might have missed one or two threads. Reader, there's an unusually high body count in this book, and not all of them are the bad guys. You've been warned.