Joe Country, Herron - B

           David Cartwright—once Lamb’s boss, River’s grandfather, and long ago a senior figure in MI5—dies and is buried at the security service’s preferred church. Watching from afar is Frank Harkness, River’s father, a man Jackson Lamb has long wanted for killing one of his Joes a few years back. Harkness, a former CIA operative turned completely rogue, is back in the country to assassinate a college-aged boy who witnessed things at an Epstein-like party and tried to blackmail a powerful member of the royal family. The boy, coincidentally, is the son of a man Harkness had killed at Slough House some time ago. When word of this reaches Slough House, the “slow horses” set out to stop him. The ending is a bit messy, leaving quite a few threads unresolved—not as strong as its predecessors.