Nobody ever really walks away.
A 2015 spy novel by Mick Herron. It’s not directly part of the main Jackson Lamb series, but shares the same setting and features some of the same characters.
Tom Bettany is ex-MI5. Over the years he’s been both deep undercover and part of their internal security team (aka ‘the Dogs’).
But nowadays he’s retired, emigrated and is getting by as a manual labourer in a French abattoir.
At least until someone phones to tell him that his estranged son Liam has died in London. After that he’s heading back, to pay his respects and find out what happened.
Because something about Liam’s death just doesn’t add up.
Nobody Walks contains examples of:
- Ashes to Crashes: Tom ends up with Liam’s ashes in an urn. At the end of the book he goes back to Liam’s apartment to collect them, but is ambushed there. The urn is knocked over in the struggle.
- Bad Boss: Dame Ingrid, who’s quite happy to sacrifice both J.K. Coe and ex-employee Bettany for her own gain.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Bettany takes a shot at Driscoll and deliberately misses, demonstrating that Kask (who was watching the whole scene without intervening) wanted to see Driscoll dead.
- Becoming the Mask: Bettany’s undercover work with the Brothers McGarry has left some scars. J.K. Coe speculates that he did some very bad things and that this is why he didn’t settle into his new role in the Dogs. Bettany’s later torture of Coe suggests that he was right.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Bettany’s only friend at the abattoir, Majeed Ansari, is mentioned near the start, and comes up briefly in JK’s review. Dame Ingrid uses them as a pretext for sending a MI5 squad after Bettany.
- Dame Ingrid’s private income is from being “something of a whizz” on the money markets. J.K. Coe also notices a damaged seam on her expensive raincoat - and pointedly doesn’t notice that her very fashionable Anna Valentine clothes are three years old. All hints that she’s in financial trouble linked to her shareholdings.
- Oskar Kask’s blue plastic lighter. Stolen from Liam’s effects after his death.
- Oskar Kask’s escape from prosecution after Baker’s murder the previous year.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat: Dame Ingrid Tierney. She’s made some poor investment decisions and Driscoll’s plans for his business will only make them worse. Almost everything that happens is due to her crooked scheme to use Liam’s death and MI5 resources to make herself richer.
- Exact Words: When called to account to committees, Dame Ingrid is very fond of stating that certain things - such as the torture of suspects - “did not take place on English soil”. She ensures that they take place in a basement in Regent’s Park, some distance below that soil.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: When Bettany works out Dame Ingrid’s scheme, she threatens to go after everyone he’s met since returning to England if he tries to kill her.
- Last Request: Once the plan is uncovered, Kask asks Saar to make it quick and simply shoot him. The request is declined.
- Let's You and Him Fight: A key element of the plot. Dame Ingrid is using Liam’s death to manipulate Bettany into killing druglord Marten Saar or millionaire Vincent Driscoll. Ideally Vincent, but either will do.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Bettany’s suspicion about Liam’s death. At the very least, missing evidence suggests that someone else was with him when he died. Eventually subverted, as it was an accident. But Dame Ingrid’s scheme removed some evidence to leave a trail for Bettany and manipulate him into killing for her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Tom’s involvement in the plot is triggered by his son Liam’s death.
- Secret Police: Tierney’s version of MI5 sometimes strays a little too close to this, despite her carefully phrased protestations.
- The Chessmaster: Ingrid Tierney. Unsurprising, given her role.
- The Infiltration: Part of Bettany’s backstory, initially in Northern Ireland and later in the Brothers McGarry’s arms-dealing operation.
- The Starscream: Oskar Kask to Marten Saar. After Bettany uncovers this, it doesn’t end well for Oskar.
- Torture Technician: Bettany, naked and wielding an electric carving knife, interrogating a naked J.K. Coe.
- Uncertain Doom: Tom Bettany. He’s ambushed at Liam’s flat and last seen in a van. Either it’s the McGarry gang’s thugs or it’s Tierney’s MI5 hit squad. Either way, they’re likely to kill him. Eventually.
- Unseen No More: Dame Ingrid Tierney, first desk of MI5, finally makes an appearance after many references in the Jackson Lamb books. Whereas second desk ‘Lady Di’ Taverner - usually the main authority figure in those books - is mentioned, but unseen, in this one.
- You Have Failed Me: Marten Saar is murderously unhappy with his goon Lepik, who was supposedly guarding the lobby until Bettany knocked him out. The nature of Bettany’s visit probably doesn’t help - the person Saar really wants to kill after hearing Bettany’s message isn’t there at the time.
