London Rules is 6th in the Slough House series — where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers.

The “slow horses,” as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. If they can’t be fired for any reason, they are reassigned to work under Jackson Lamb.

Herron is a very funny writer. Most of the best lines are from Lamb who’s a bigoted, philistine, obese, spectacularly flatulent, alcoholic chain-smoker.

But smart. And loyal to his misfits.

Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman plays Lamb in the TV series.

In this book — the weakest in the series, so far — the head of MI5 is trying to protect the prime minister.

Politicians are corrupt and much mocked.

Over at Slough House, somebody wants to kill their tech geek, Roddy Ho. Nobody can imagine why.

The new book is also set specifically after the EU referendum.

Its antagonist, Dennis Gimball, is the UK’s leading Eurosceptic MP, with a wife who writes a tabloid column.

As in earlier books, which featured a floppy-fringed bicycling Westminster populist, Herron adeptly negotiates the rules of satire and the laws of libel to create fictional public figures who simultaneously hit more than one real-life bullseye.

During a series of terrorist attacks on Britain, Slough House detects a threat to Gimball, making the reader wonder whether the espionage rejects are capable of saving the politician and, frankly, whether we want them to. …

Guardian

London Rule #1 = cover your arse.