A GRU defector who has no real value is now the problem of MI6. The Russians want to kill him to send a message to other potential turncoats – they will never be safe. After an attempt is made on his life Jonas Merrick of MI5 is brought in to find out who on the MI6 resettlement team has leaked the defector’s location.

Merrick is also simultaneously running the operation of keeping the Russian alive and using him as a “tethered goat” to take out the team sent to kill him. Merrick is an anti-hero. An odd, aged, fussy, brilliant man, he is unliked by many and underestimated by most. Even his bosses who believe in him aren’t sure he’s able to pull this off.

As always, tightly plotted, suspenseful and balancing the humane with the inhumane. Second book in the Jonas Merrick series. ( )

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
Absolute quality characters and writing you would expect from this excellent author.
Completely engaging and gripping from first to last page. This is the second book in the series and while there are numerous references to the previous story it would work as a standalone novel.
The brilliant character of ''George Smiley ' is almost reincarnated in the form of Jonas Merrick brilliant clever fearless underestimated, and overlooked as past it by colleagues and those he investigates. This is an intelligent intriguing story with moments of heart in mouth tension and others that are laugh out loud funny.
Completely recommended. ( )

Jonas Merrick, the querulous MI5 counter-intelligence analyst, made his first appearance last year in The Crocodile Hunter, in which he dodged his imminent retirement by singlehandedly foiling an attempt to bomb the Houses of Parliament, and then coordinated the operation to foil a further Jihadi plot while scarcely venturing his office. Indeed, many of the officers who take on the active aspects of the operations that his research spawned slightingly referred to him as ‘The Eternal Flame’ because he never went out.

A year on and he is still in post, as surly and graceless as ever. A midranking Russian intelligence officer has approached British embassy officials in Denmark advising them that he wishes to defect, and hinting at considerable aounts of valuable intel that he could make available. Having assessed the likely value of his potential contraband information, MI6 are unconvinced, and also suspect that he may be a plant. While they continue to conduct initial assessment, two attempts are made on his life. This rings alarms bells because the attacks seem to have been driven by the leak of valuable information held within MI6 itself. An investigation is required to consdiere whether there is a mole, and to neutralise them before any further damage can be done. At this point, enter Merrick, delegated to conduct a series of interviews of all those MI6 officers at Vauxhall Cross who might have had access to the information in question.

After the greater part of a career being despised by his own colleagues, Merrick is unconcerned by the prospect of their MI6 counterparts also despising him, and he makes no attempt to make an awkward situation any more comfortable. Meanwhile, in an operation reminiscent of recent state-sponsored attacks overseas, two assassins are sent by the GRU to eliminate the would-be traitor as quickly as possible.

As with The Crocodile Hunter, I thought that the kernel of the story was very gripping. Unfortunately, once again I found the writer’s style difficult to penetrate. Having been brought up on the effortless purple prose of John le Carré, this proved less readily digestible fare, and I was tempted to jump ship at several points throughout. To be fair to the book, I should point out that the plot was sufficiently engrossing to keep me reading to the end, but it was a close-run thing. ( )