Victor Driscoll – Odd duck, “tender plant” and millionaire software developer who may or may not have caused the death of Liam. He might have thought he'd left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody really just walks away. Herron strips his revenge story to the bone, paring away unnecessary characters, episodes, speeches and gestures to produce a violent little elegy that grows both more clever and more sour as it hurtles along.

His arrival in the city ignites the interests of many, from mob bosses to the upper echelons of MI5. You can find a recent podcast on Irish Times with Herron when he released Joe Country, one of the Slough House series, a favorite of mine. Although this is not an official Slough House book, it does live in the same universe and introduces some important characters that appear in later books. His wife had died of cancer a few years ago, so the death of his son is a powerful drawcard to bring Tom home to England.I'd gladly read more about Tom Bettany, but he may have burned all his London bridges by the end of this one. There’s a gaming mogul, for whom his son worked, and some kind of criminal network that he wonders if his son was connected to.

I loved his Slough House series, am currently enjoying his Oxford Investigations series and totally enjoyed this stand alone book. Mick Herron introduces Tom Bettany, a man with a violent past and only one thing to live for: Avenging his son's death. Because compared with the intricate and byzantine plots in his Slough House novels, Nobody Walks appeared as a straightforward hunt of a father on a vigilante crusade after the killer of his only son. Bettany might have thought he’d left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody ever really walks away.Set in the world of Herron's Slough House series, and not including Slough House in the tale, Nobody Walks gives me a look into Dame Ingrid Tearney (1st desk at MI5) and the spider webs she spins. Set in the same fictional London as his ‘Slough House’ series, Mick Herron now introduces Tom Bettany, an ex-spook with a violent past and only one thing to live for – avenging his son’s death. Tom, though, had been ex-Service before he severed all ties and, at his son’s flat, something sets off an alarm bell for him. Once upon a time, Bettany had gone undercover to put the McGarry Brothers in jail for their contribution to The Troubles.

What begins as a straightforward story of a man trying to discover who killed his son morphs into a suspenseful cat and mouse game. Herron's trademark witty dialogue and sensorily descriptive writing once again pulls me in and keeps me engaged. The explanation of young Liam's death makes little sense to Tom, who begins to make enquiries of his own. Suspicion lands on Vincent Driscoll, Liam's rather odd games-designer boss, and this raises a red flag for MI5.This is not like the Slough House series, except for some of the wonderful turns of phrase and some of the grittier action. It’s all third-person, so we can see different points of view and eavesdrop on the thoughts of a few characters, although you wouldn’t really want to live in the heads of any of them, including Bettany. This short stand-alone novel is not part of the Slough House series that features Jackson Lamb and his band of failed spies but is written in the same MI5 universe. And this remained the legal truth of the matter, as the things in question were taking place some distance below that. Martin Boyd, leaves Britain and scuffles around the rougher parts of France where nobody much wants to know anyone’s personal history.