Tag Archives: spy

#BookReview ‘Bad Actors’ by Mick Herron #spy #thriller

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I’ve loved every one of the Slough House books by Mick Herron. In Bad Actors, eighth in the series about the reject spies, the Prime Minister’s special advisor has plans to reform the intelligence service. Break it and re-make it is his motto. But this threatens First Desk Diana Taverner, who has a few things to hide, as well as Jackson Lamb and his eccentric failures in the anonymous office in East London. Mick HerronA ‘superspreading’ specialist working for Downing Street has disappeared, Russia’s First Desk has flown into London and gone off radar and Shirley Dander is banished to ‘The San,’ a retreat in the West Country for spies who’ve gone off the rails. Meanwhile SPAD disruptor Anthony Sparrow – who calls anything ‘fake news’ if it doesn’t suit his storyline – is seen eating at an anonymous pizza restaurant in London which is odd as he does nothing without a scheme.
It takes a while for the details to connect, for the full impact of what is happening, to sink in. The certainty is that what is expected to go well will always be a car crash. Devious, selfish, deluded politicians, each with their own plan for advancement, cause problems for the slow horses who are sent by Jackson Lamb on missions that sound safe, innocuous and boring but turn out to be anything but. Roddy Ho’s computer wizardry takes centre stage and it’s good to see a full storyline given to Shirley Dander.
There is an element of predictability in the plot structure, perhaps inevitable in what is becoming a long series. Threat, Slough House endangered, Lamb’s unlikely spies save the day. But this doesn’t negate the enjoyment and Herron is so good at surprises. The wit is laugh-out-loud.
Twisty, turny, loopy, always surprising. Never disappoints. For true appreciation, start with Book One.

Click the title to read my reviews of the previous books in the Slough House series:-
SLOW HORSES #1SLOUGHHOUSE
DEAD LIONS #2SLOUGHHOUSE
REAL TIGERS #3SLOUGHHOUSE
SPOOK STREET #4SLOUGHHOUSE
LONDON RULES #5SLOUGHHOUSE
JOE COUNTRY #6SLOUGHHOUSE
SLOUGH HOUSE #7SLOUGHHOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Five Days of Fog’ by Anna Freeman
‘I Found You’ by Lisa Jewell
‘The Second Midnight’ by Andrew Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BAD ACTORS by Mick Herron https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6K4 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Joanna Trollope

#BookReview ‘Nemesis’ by Rory Clements #thriller #WW2

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Nemesis by Rory Clements is the third in his Tom Wilde series which sees the American-born Cambridge professor tangle with more spies as Britain enters the Second World War. It is a page-turning read that I galloped through despite a few moments of confusion about who was double-crossing who; to the point where I started to distrust everyone except Tom. Rory ClementsIt is September 1939 and a strange time, the pause before war starts when sandbags are filled and the propaganda starts. Wilde, on holiday in southern France with girlfriend Lydia, negotiates the release of a former student, a brilliant chorister, from an internment camp. Marcus Marfield fought for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and seems to be suffering from PTSD. Wilde returns him to Cambridge though feeling uneasy about the circumstances of Marcus’s release. Marcus’s behaviour is worrying. Clements includes many of the characters featured in the earlier two books, including British spy Philip Eaton, doctor Rupert Weir and fellow don Horace Dill.
Critical at this stage of the war was America joining the Allies but two unrelated incidents spread bad PR in the US; the ambassador in Paris escapes assassination and a British ship The Athenia, carrying American civilians, is sunk. On board are the wife and children of Jim Vandenberg, Tom’s contact at the US Embassy. As Jim waits for news of his wife and sons, strange things start to happen around Marcus Marfield and Tom is pulled into the investigation. Though unqualified, he has a skill for spying and takes to it eagerly, always riding his distinctive Rudge motorcycle.
This is a fun, gripping series set at a fascinating time in Britain’s history when each side was plotting to win the propaganda war and influence America. It tempts me to start reading Clements’ Elizabethan spy novels.

Click the title to read my reviews of the other books in the Tom Wilde series:-
CORPUS #1TOMWILDE
NUCLEUS #2TOMWILDE
HITLER’S SECRET #4TOMWILDE
A PRINCE AND A SPY #5TOMWILDE
THE MAN IN THE BUNKER #6TOMWILDE
THE ENGLISH FUHRER #7TOMWILDE

And from the Sebastian Wolff series:-
MUNICH WOLF #1SEBASTIANWOLFF

If you like this, try:-
‘A Hero in France’ by Alan Furst
‘An Officer and a Spy’ by Robert Harris
‘Day’ by AL Kennedy

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview NEMESIS by Rory Clements https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3PU via @SandraDanby