Review: Spook Street

Spook Street by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of London's shopping centres is rocked by a suicide bomber who appears to have orchestrated a flash mob dance routine just so that he could cause maximum carnage.

Over at Regents Park Dame Ingrid is out (as indeed is Bojo lookilikey Peter Judd) and there's a new First Desk. Lady Di is still there trying to manipulate the new First Desk who has come from outside MI5. In addition there's a new head of the Dogs, a woman. No sooner has the Frist Desk advised the PM of their provisional findings about the bombing when Lady Di drops the news that the bomber's ID is one that had been carefully curated by MI5 during the Cold War - they key being that it wasn't a fake ID, it was a genuine ID just not assigned to a warm body. Somehow, someone in MI5 has stolen a number of these 'Products' and it has only just been discovered.

Meanwhile, at Slough House Catherine Standish has been replaced by a woman nominated by the First Chair, everyone else is much the same, except Rive Cartwright is worried that the O.B. (his grandfather) appears to be becoming increasingly forgetful and paranoid. Given the O.B. was once the power behind the First Chair throne River is worried that Regents Park may decide the only way to ensure the O.B. doesn't start spilling state secrets is to silence him permanently.

Another great instalment in this series, the Slough House body count continues to rise (in more ways than one), I guessed some parts of the plot but others eluded me.

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