Pun Salad

Like his previous book in the series, Mick Herron ends this one with a … well, it's not exactly a cliffhanger, let's just call it "a stunning plot development that leaves you wondering about its resolution."

But (spoiler alert) the previous book's SPDTLYWAIR was Roddy Ho's discovery that Slough House's personnel records had been wiped from the Agency's internal database. Disturbing! As in previous books, we are dropped into the middle of an ongoing battle, and its dimensions are only clarified as Jackson Lamb and the rest of the group muddle through, hoping to survive. It develops that "First Desk" Diana Travener launched an assassination scheme aimed at a Russian agent misbehaving in England. Much worse, that scheme was bankrolled privately, by a corrupt media star in a corrupt relationship with a (previously) disgraced politician.

The upshot is that the Slow Horses may be in mortal danger as a result, (relatively) innocent victims of this rekindled cold war.

Other things of interest (may contain more spoilers): a character we haven't seen since the first book in the series gets resurrected here. On page 201, Jackson Lamb reveals that he's a believer in the Steele Dossier Russians-elected-Trump conspiracy theory. Lady Di actually seems to be more sympathetic here than in previous books; however, that may be only because her antagonists are truly slimy.