Real Tigers, by Mick Herron

One of the Slow Horses has been abducted and held hostage for another of their number to carry out a task for the kidnappers. Their stable, Slough House, already serves as a retirement paddock for dud and disgraced agents who are too hard to sack. Now its existence is under threat as a dodgy private security firm is employed to involve them in political machinations. New Home Secretary Peter Judd has a grudge against the intelligence service and is not above using it as a tool to further his political ambitions. In this he could be helped or hindered by the ongoing power struggle between Head of MI5 Dame Ingrid Tearney and her diabolical second desk, Diana Taverner. The Slow Horses must find a way to save themselves from increasingly dire circumstances, in a fight that looks to have no winners. Written with a dry, cynical wit, this tense and edgy thriller deepens the intrigue established in the first two books of the series. It paints a truly bleak picture of the intelligence services and political class, where the focus is firmly on personal power grabs and private vendettas and damn the public interest. Bystanders and obstacles are expendable and cover ups the norm. It is only too believable, which is kind of depressing.