Mick Herron has an interesting entry in his ongoing series. Slough House has been disappeared from most records so that their members can be trailed by Regent's Park agents as part of their training. But due to a theft from the archives, they seem to be the targets of assassination crews. The question is who and why? As in a good spy mystery, the details keep adding up until the full picture appears, or as in this case, a fuller picture. There is a full crew on hand that manages to blunder, careen, and otherwise cause confusion while still managing to give a decent account of themselves. Now, if Management would just wise up, they might have a chance to survive! Not that this series has been firmly posted on my reading list, I will need to catch up with all the backstories I have missed!

Mick Herron is probably my favorite author in the mystery/thriller genre, and Slough House is possibly the best of the lot. Previous books had very, very complicated plots, a la LeCarre, with many characters who were all marvelous....but I had to pause regularly to recalibrate. Who is this again? Who did he double cross? Who is she having an affair with again? It may be just early onset dimness on my part, but Slough House (a prequel to Joe Country) seems a bit more streamlined than past volumes. The story moves quickly and the characters are compellingly vivid. Jackson Lamb is less repellent than before (e.g. fewer references to his deliberate flatulence) and that was a relief for me, but he’s as brilliant and hilariously witty as ever. As you can see, I enthusiastically recommend Slough House and fervently hope that there will be many more “prequels”. Mick Herron must be one of the smartest authors alive. Or otherwise.

I love this series and this title didn’t disappoint. The characters are sometimes hilarious, sometimes caustic, and sometimes just darn lucky, in fact more often than not luck plays a big role in this book. This one ends with a cliff hanger so I can’t wait for the next installment.

In a world that no longer has John le Carré in it, readers can be comforted that at least we have his heir apparent still giving us sharp, politically trenchant espionage novels on a regular basis. For the past ten years, Mick Herron has been writing about a colorful collection of spies who washed out and have been parked at Slough House, under the leadership (such as it is) of Jackson Lamb, a Rabelaisian figure whose crude behavior masks serious tradecraft talent.

The seventh of the series opens with a spy in training who is trying to shake off a tail. She thinks she has made a clever escape, only to have a knife slid neatly between her ribs. When the news arrives in London, Diana Tavener, First Desk of MI5, is pleased. Russian spies had had the gall to poison British citizens on their own soil; the score needed to be evened. Mission accomplished, with nobody the wiser. Except, in order to skirt around the tiresome process of having such a risky mission approved, she has made a terrible bargain.

In post-Brexit Britain, disaffected and angry protestors are milling in the street of London, egged on by a young right-wing media influencer and a politician riding a populist wave (a character who combines the arrogant nihilism of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson's speech patterns). He may not have made it to Number 10 but is still pulling strings behind the scenes. The residents of Slough House are much as they've always been, an oddball assortment of failures, rusticated in a crumbling building doing not much of anything.

Roddy Ho, their geeky IT specialist, learns their records have been erased from the service's electronic files and soon they realize MI 5 trainees are using them for stalking practice. Before long, former Slough House employees are also being stalked, but more viciously. Jackson Lamb gets wind of the trouble Tavener has gotten herself into – trouble that puts his joes in danger - and heaves himself into irritable action to sort it all out.

Herron has a biting wit. Though he handles his politics with a lighter touch than post-Cold War le Carré did, underneath the rollicking surface of humor that is somehow both erudite and slapstick, there's a certain amount of rage bubbling away. Like le Carré, Herron highlights the venial motives behind global politics, exposed by a cast of characters who are about as far from James Bond as it gets, with flaws and foibles that can be laugh-out-loud funny. But don't be fooled: the foolish shenanigans of post-truth post-Brexit confusion can lead to a heart-wrenching place.

If you're into crime or espionage you either adore Mick Herron or you simply haven't read him yet. The latest misadventures of the Slough bunch take a darker turn than usual but just as entertaining as before. Happy to feature it in February’s edition of Novel Encounters, my monthly column roundup up the top new fiction titles for Zoomer magazine’s Books section.
To read the feature, click the link.

Slough House, the home of the ‘slow horses’, the rejects and drop-outs from the British Secret Service at Regent Park, forever condemned to endless paperwork until they retire or resign to find a more fulfilling career. Over them all rules Jackson Lamb, shambolic, unwashed, uncouth, rude and cynical but underneath the façade always brilliant and always looking out for his Joes. They might be discarded, dysfunctional Joes but they’re his Joes and, even though he might abuse and belittle them on a regular basis, he’d do his utmost to protect them.

Roddy (‘The Rodster’) Ho, computer wizard, social misfit and ultracool chick magnet (but only in his own imagination) has discovered an anomaly he calls the Weird Wiping; every one of the Slough House employees have been wiped from the Secret Service database. They’re still being paid but their personnel files have disappeared. Is this some new game that Diana Taverner, newly appointed First Desk and Head of the Service is playing and if so, what does it mean for the slow horses?

Diana Taverner may have made a mistake in trusting a politician (what was she thinking?), to help fund a project on foreign soils. Now she finds herself beholden to the owner of a media news channel with a manipulative politician pulling her strings. Meanwhile slow horses are dying in fatal accidents and Lamb’s team are starting to feel that they’re being watched.

The latest activities of Slough House play out against a background of contemporary British politics with Brexit chaos, novichok poisoning of ex spies by Russian agents on British soil and street demonstrations by the disaffected and disgruntled populace unhappy with the current government. As ever, the writing is razor sharp, the dialogue clever and witty, the carefully laid out plot unpredictable and the humour sardonic and biting, sneaking up to cause sudden outbursts of laughter. The uneasy relationships between the misfits of Slough House are evident as they attempt to work together but somehow, we can also glance their fears and vulnerabilities and feel a fondness and affinity with them as events move beyond their control. Lamb’s clandestine meetings with Diana are always entertaining with their repartee a delight. Despite her revulsion at his decrepitude, she is fully aware of the devious and brilliant mind lurking beneath the façade.

This much anticipated addition to this excellent series was indeed worth the wait. But oh, that cliffhanger of an ending, Mr Herron! Please don’t keep us holding our breath too long for the next episode!

I'm really enjoying this series, even though I jumped in at Book 5 and need to go back to the start. Luckily, it doesn't matter. Each book seems to start with the same description of a rather abandoned, decrepit space that is inhabited by the "slow horses" that work in Slough House (note: in the UK, slow/Slough sound the same, so it's a pun of sorts). While some of the members change, there's a crew of stalwarts led by Jackson Lamb, who reminds me of a very uncouth, slovenly Nero Wolfe.

In this episode, we have a real life event (the Novachick poisonings) leading to revenge and retaliation by the FSB. And for reasons, Lamb's slow horses are the targets. And... action. The machinations of the team and Diana's First Desk issues are so much fun to read. Is it too early to read Book 8?

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley?

Should be Slough House part 1?

I am a big fan of the Slough House series, incl. novellas, and have reread each book many times enjoying the witty dialog, relatable characters and satisfying endings where the good guys (usually) stumble through to save the day and get a bit of their own back.

Readers of the Slough House book series will enjoy checking in with their favorite characters here, with a few welcome returns in store as well. I love how each character’s skillset, while flawed, seems to fill in the gaps of their coworkers to create a formidable team charging toward any threat, from personal to national security. If that doesn’t work, Jackson Lamb is always nearby to save their bacon in the end.

I feel the last three installments of this series, Joe Country, The Catch (novella) and Slough House, are a bit darker and end with more sadness and cliffhangers. While some of the loose ends from Joe Country are addressed in Slough House, I prefer a neat and tidy ending to my books. If the lack of closure in Joe Country’s ending frustrated you, be prepared for an even larger dose with this newest installment. (I sure hope Mr. Herron writes fast so we can all find out what happens!)

I found the plot of this book (hopefully) unrealistic and unrelatable as compared to past installments. Could an influx of millions of dollars towards MI6 ops really go unnoticed or be explained away as budgetary surplus without raised eyebrows? There are others too, but I don’t want to spoil.

While not my favorite of the Slough House book series, if you like spy thrillers, witty banter and contemporary fiction, you’ll enjoy this book!

The slow horses are back and I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy from Soho Press for review. ‘Slough House’ opens as each book has in the series previous: a tour through the rooms and features of the offices situated above the Chinese restaurant and the newsagent on Aldersgate Street. It’s a testament to Herron’s ability that this exercise remains fresh despite its use in each book, and for the reader it’s like returning to your childhood home where a shelf filled with all your favorite books await, and you know you’re in for a treat.

This time around some slow horses are dying in unusual ways: are they paranoid or being targeted for assassination? I don’t want to give away too much, but in Shirley’s case I’d bet on a coke induced paranoia. Any takers?

The real magic of Herron is that, at a certain point, you just can’t help but to shirk all responsibility (and knowledge of an early morning wake up call) and stay up late into the night reading. It’s tough, because the language is such that you want to savor it, but at a certain point this proves fruitless as you race to the end. The wit and humor is here as has become standard, but perhaps a bit darker than the previous books. That was always underlying though, and it’s well balanced once again.

I usually hate reviewing a book before it’s released as there isn’t much you can say or conversation that can happen without giving away spoilers. That being said I wanted to share how very good this seventh book is. It’s on par with the rest of the series, perhaps better. Scary thought: Herron just seems to be getting better and better, and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of reading about this crew or any new characters that he introduces. Spybrarians who have not yet read or started the series please do so!

Since I can’t give much away, I do want to talk about Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House; a real spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold. Here’s a quote from ‘Slough House’:

“From this approach he looked like an exhausted tramp, and for a moment she wondered if he were the source of that mumbled prayer. His shoes were scuffed lumps, the hems of his trousers frayed, and his overcoat might have been stitched from the tattered sail of a pirate ship. And she had little doubt that the odour of cigarettes and scotch would grow apparent the nearer she came, interrupting the softer smells the rain had released; little doubt, too, that for all his repose he knew damn well she was approaching, had been aware of her since she set foot on the towpath. And for half a second she had a troubling glimpse of another Lamb inside the shell of this one; one who had posed for the image in front of her, and whose carefully composed decrepitude was a sculptor’s trick.”

Was there ever a better paragraph to describe Lamb? I really like the last sentence here. When I first started the series I had trouble digesting Lamb’s character, a fault that is of my own. He has a code that he lives by, perhaps different than most, and often missed under his vulgarity and uncleanliness, but principled primarily with one idea: you never leave a Joe behind. The slow horses might be screw ups but they’re Lamb’s screwups, and that counts for something. What I had trouble with is the history of this cold warrior who, though we never see it and only hear the odd reference here and there, are led to believe that Lamb was one hell of a Joe in his time. So how had he become such a crass, farting, messy slob? I keep coming back to the final sentence above: “And for half a second she had a troubling glimpse of another Lamb inside the shell of this one; one who had posed for the image in front of her, and whose carefully composed decrepitude was a sculptor’s trick.” We see flashes of who Lamb is and what he stands for, but where does the layer of protection that he surrounds himself with (how he dresses, speaks, and acts) come from? Does he suffer from PTSD? Has his cynicism grown to such a point that there is just no coming back? I’ll be that guy and ask for it: Mick can you write us a Lamb prequel? Please? But maybe that’s where the magic lies: the mystery that surrounds Lamb keeps it all ticking, and a peek at where the sausage is made may not be in our best interest.

At the end of the day a return to spook street with a look in on what the slow horses have gotten up to is worthy of your time, and like visiting an old friend that time will pass far too quickly. Enjoy it along the way knowing that there will be more times to come.

What are your thoughts on Lamb and the other characters? Who are your favorites and why?