The third volume in Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb series of thrillers continues to be as good as promised. Each of the books sees one or more members of his ‘slow horses’ team leave the team (sometimes because they are killed) while newcomers are introduced to replace them. And in each book, the team members — scorned by the official British intelligence services at ‘the Park’ — prove themselves to be rather good at what they do, especially fighting. This book has a rather nuanced look at the bad guys — who may turn out to be not so very bad at all, in some cases. Increasingly, at the heart of the books is an ambitious British Conservative politician named Peter Judd, who resembles the country’s current prime minister in a number of ways, including the description of his hairstyle and the fact that he rides a bicycle. It’s been reported that author Herron may well have known Boris Johnson in his university days, and if that’s the case, and the character is based on inside knowledge, that’s a terrifying prospect.