A review by nigellicus
Slough House by Mick Herron

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense

5.0

Punished for messing up, or just for seeing the wrong thing, the Secret Service rejects of Slough House have to put up with drudgery and monotony and bouts of verbal abuse from Jackson Lamb, but every now and then stuff happens, often as not a series of disasters that all roll down on Slough House, but at least it makes a break. Their current circle of hell is being digitally wiped from Service records and basically no longer existing, even though ex Slow Horses are starting to turn up dead in a way suggestive of a highly trained hit-team. First Desk Diana Taverner, boss and nemesis, has made some deals and made some plays and Jackson Lamb isn't having it. 

Since I've been reading lots of Dorothy Dunnett, Jasckson Lamb is like if Monsignor Jordan de Riberac was a washed up old secret agent put behind a desk to torment a bunch of screw-ups. He will make your life hell if you work for him, but he will allso make your life, and possibly your death, hell if you mess with him or the people who work for him. Either way, hell follows.

Speaking of Dunnett, ouch that ending.