Nobody Walks / Mick Herron

Nobody Walks by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Damn, can Mick Herron ever write convoluted espionage novels! This one is not part of his Slough House series, but uses some of the same characters. If you've read the novella The Catch, you'll recognize Herron reusing a device, that of a “retired" agent being put into play by a devious member of Regents Park.

I think that John Le Carre is one of the acknowledged masters of the spy novel, but his specialty was the Cold War era. For 21st century spies and politicians, I think the torch has been handed to Herron, who has run with it. His spy masters are admirable in their ability to think like the paranoid and uber-careful joes under their authority. The wheels within wheels of double-think seem obvious in retrospect, but would never be serious thoughts for me, a general member of the public. I admit to a bit of paranoia and some willingness to use social lies to get events to work out to my liking, but I am a rank amateur compared to these folk. It reminded me a lot of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, with its complex motivations and use of an agent perhaps past his best-before date.

I am also a fan of the ambiguous ending, so despised by so many people. I think we can all agree that Tom Bettany isn't going to like whatever is coming. We don't need to “witness" the result to know that.

It is official for me now, I must read ALL of Herron's fiction.


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