As this book received the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award in 2023, I thought I’d give it a go. It is a very silly book. Agent Seventeen — whose real name we never learn — is the current holder of the world championship assassin’s league, or whatever. He replaced Agent Sixteen, who has gone into retirement. Agent One, apparently, was the legendary Sydney Reilly who was many things but not a professional paid assassin. A minor quibble. Lots of violence, not much of a plot to speak of, two-dimensional characters — I loved it. Couldn’t wait to read the sequel.