If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added. Once again, Herron produces a fast-paced crime novel with twists and red herrings to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning right up to the jaw-dropping revelations of the final chapters. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

I think that John Le Carre is one of the acknowledged masters of the spy novel, but his specialty was the Cold War era. This is not like the Slough House series, except for some of the wonderful turns of phrase and some of the grittier action. He was in France for a reason – leaving behind an old life (the one where he neglected his wife and son), but never really finding another. His spy masters are admirable in their ability to think like the paranoid and uber-careful joes under their authority.

This had all the good things we expect from Herron - a tight plot, phenomenal pacing, some truly unexpected twists and turns, and the dark humour that sometimes makes you feel a bit guilty for enjoying. The underground, arteries hardening, was a wheezing queue of trains in the which passengers, squeezed into awkward shapes, counted down the stations of the cross. The only complaint would be very wet clothing and socks and shoes but the book was so well written I really did not allow the physical discomfort to ruin things. This is a grim, grim story, without any of the humour that lightens the main Slough House series, or the of-the-moment political commentary that makes those books so relevant.

Herron's trademark witty dialogue and sensorily descriptive writing once again pulls me in and keeps me engaged. 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.This short stand-alone novel is not part of the Slough House series that features Jackson Lamb and his band of failed spies but is written in the same MI5 universe. And this remained the legal truth of the matter, as the things in question were taking place some distance below that.

Coe was introduced in the novella, The List, and took his place in Slough House in Spook Street; in this novel, the reader learns the details of the ordeal that landed him under Jackson Lamb’s supervision.Bettany) let Flea lead him upstairs, where the windows were untinted, and the view was of rooftops across the canal. You can find a recent podcast on Irish Times with Herron when he released Joe Country, one of the Slough House series, a favorite of mine. Bettany and Liam had been estranged when Liam died and Bettany always thought he'd have time to make things work again with his son. Bettany might have thought he'd left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody ever really walks away. I never did warm to the people, but I did find it intriguing discovering the connections between them.

Like a tethered goat, “Dame Spook” uses the gullible JK Coe of Psych Eval as her go-between and Bettany – signalling Coe’s eventual fate as a “Slow Horse”.Suspicion lands on Vincent Driscoll, Liam's rather odd games-designer boss, and this raises a red flag for MI5. As ever, Herron imbues the whole thing with a sense of authenticity and never needs to labour his points.