Nobody Walks: Mick Herron

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The wheels within wheels of double-think seem obvious in retrospect, but would never be serious thoughts for me, a general member of the public. Herron's remarkable novel has enough suspense, action, and deductive dazzlement to keep genre fans happy. Herron has created a cast of unforgettable characters and woven a plot of intrigue that will delight readers, and is a must for fans of thrillers, espionage and well plotted mysteries. Martin Boyd, leaves Britain and scuffles around the rougher parts of France where nobody much wants to know anyone’s personal history.

Coe finds himself pulled from behind a desk to do her bidding and his initial euphoria of being chosen by her, ends in fear and disillusionment, as we discover why he acts as he does in later books. Bettany might have thought he'd left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody ever really walks away. As a fan of the Slough House series, it is satisfying to learn more about one character's back story and just to get a broader glimpse of MI5 as conceived by Herron. What begins as a straightforward story of a man trying to discover who killed his son morphs into a suspenseful cat and mouse game.Tom, though, had been ex-Service before he severed all ties and, at his son’s flat, something sets off an alarm bell for him. Such things – the treatment of suspects, the over-rigorous pursuit of testimony – did not take place on English soil, as she had stated more than once to more than one committee.

The book draws together spooks, drug dealers, game developers and those who will stoop at anything to protect their interests - money! If you are a fan of the Slough House series like me, you need to read this if you haven't, if for no other reason because it features JK Coe, and tells about his ordeal that landed him in Slough House. This is intense and emotionally powerful - and, as much as I love the Slough House books, this might just be my favourite Herron yet. Already he has treated us to classic portraits including the bald and bewigged head of MI5’s Intelligence Service, Dame Ingrid Tearney, and the pale and twitchy successful games producer, Vincent Driscoll. Mick Herron already has a host of good mysteries to his name, but he has refined his skills with this one.

But there are too many details, blatant and hidden, in every sentence that if missed by the reader will lessen the impact of its ending. If you give up on this book, which some reviewers have suggested, you'll miss out on hauntingly beautiful prose, a stunningly crafted plot and the aching sadness of loss so subtly intertwined. But more than a few people are interested to hear Bettany is back in town, from incarcerated mob bosses to those in the highest echelons of MI5. Tom Bettany is almost a le Carré-esque character with his deep complexity, his existentialist crisis of identity, and his ultimate fate. While this novel doesn't have the biting humor of the Slough House books, it is a propulsive unputdownable read.

His spy masters are admirable in their ability to think like the paranoid and uber-careful joes under their authority. There’d been a sharp rise in the number of women reading bondage porn in public, but other than that, London had stayed London.

His wife had died of cancer a few years ago, so the death of his son is a powerful drawcard to bring Tom home to England. I loved his Slough House series, am currently enjoying his Oxford Investigations series and totally enjoyed this stand alone book.