Dead Lions by Mick Herron

 

In the second novel of the Slough House series, a man on the periphery of the intelligence network has been found dead on a bus.   Was it old age or something else?  He claimed to have knowledge of Russian intelligence but isn't the Cold War over?  

Jackson Lamb isn't sure and decides to investigate.  Soon he is deep in old files and meeting with people he knew years ago in the game.  One of his Slow Horses operatives is killed in what looks like a road accident but was it?  When he finds out that a small village in rural England is full of what could be a sleeping Soviet network, he sends River to investigate.  Has he sent him to his death?

I really enjoy this series.  What is so interesting is the interplay of characters but above all the conclusions that Lamb is so quick to see and others so slow.  Readers of this series will soon have favorites in the group and it's interesting to follow the Slow Horses lives in addition to whatever mystery Lamb has decided needs his attention.  This book is recommended for mystery readers interested in spy novels.