The Blurb On The Back:

Spies lie. They betray. It’s what they do.


Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man’s library, and a mysteriously missing book.

Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn’t appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity.

Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks.

Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault.

But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all come home, there’ll be a reckoning.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.
The Blurb On The Back:

A house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb, a child disappears in the aftermath, and Sarah Tucker - bored and unhappy with life - becomes obsessed with trying to find her.

Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband’s wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew, as her investigation reveals that people long-believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s thriller (the first in the OXFORD SERIES) mixes sharp one-liners, genuine twists and cynicism but Sarah’s convoluted back story didn’t work for me given what you see of her before it’s revealed. Zoë Boehm makes a bigger impact despite limited page time and I found both her and the dangerous and driven Michael Downey more interesting characters. It’s an entertaining read and I will read on, but it’s not as good as SLOUGH HOUSE.
The Blurb On The Back:

When your cover is blown … where do you hide?


Two years ago, the Monochrome inquiry was set up to investigate the British secret service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out misconduct, allowing the civil servants seconded to the inquiry, Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, unfettered access to confidential information in the service archives.

But with progress blocked at every turn, Monochrome is circling the drain … Until the OTIS file appears out of nowhere.

What classified secrets does OTIS hold that see a long-redundant spy being chased through Devon’s green lanes in the dark? What happened in a newly reunified Berlin that someone is desperate to keep under wraps? And who will win the battle for the soul of the secret service - or was that decided a long time ago?

Spies and pen pushers, politicians and PAs, high-flyers, time-servers and burn-outs. They all have jobs to do in the daylight. But what they do in the secret hours reveals who they really are.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Although not officially part of the SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES, Mick Herron’s latest spy thriller stands adjacent to it so if you’re a SLOUGH HOUSE fan, you’ll enjoy seeing some of its characters get more page time and backstory here. Caustic, cynical and at times very funny, I hugely enjoyed this story which bounces between time periods but I’d suggest not reading STANDING BY THE WALL until afterwards as it does spoil some of the surprises.
The Blurb On The Back:

Here in Slough House, the intelligence service’s home for inept spies, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.


Roddy Ho is used to being the one the slow horses turn to when they need miracles performed, and he’s always been Jackson Lamb’s Number Two. So when Lamb has a photograph that needs doctoring, it’s Ho he entrusts with the task. Christmas is a time for memories, but Lamb doesn’t do memories - or so he says. But what is it about the photo that makes him want to alter it? How would the slow horses cope if Roddy Ho did not exist? And most importantly of all, are the team having Christmas drinks, and if so, where?

Standing By The Wall offers a glimpse into the kind of seasonal merriment you might expect at Slough House, where the boss generally marks the festive season with an increase in hostilities. But them, this is the secret service, not Secret Santa. And the slow horses aren’t here to enjoy themselves.

Roddy Roddy Roddy? Ho Ho Ho!


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s short story set in the SLOUGH HOUSE universe is a pithy, fun affair. There are hints here as to a link with forthcoming book THE SECRET HOURS (notably a mention of Operation Monochrome), I always enjoy the self-delusional Roddy Ho and it’s good to see River Cartwright make a return, albeit not in peak health. If, like me, you devour anything SLOUGH HOUSE related, then it’s worth a look but occasional readers could probably skip it.
The Blurb On The Back:

In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere.


A key member of a Downing Street think tank has disappeared without trace. Claude Wheelan, one-time First Desk of MI5’s Regent’s Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent’s Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5’s radar.

Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation.

In a world where lying, cheating and back-stabbing are the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they’ll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 8th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES uses a missing person case to incorporate a savage commentary on UK politics. Like SLOUGH HOUSE there’s a strong set-up feel with Herron manoeuvring characters and motivation for Book 9 but Wheelan’s return, Taverner’s tribulations and Shirley’s rage issues are all a lot of fun, I enjoyed seeing John Bachelor from the novellas and there are some hilarious lines such that I can’t wait for Book 9.
The Blurb On The Back:

’Kill us? They’ve never needed to kill us,’ said Lamb. ‘I mean, look at us. What would be the point?’


A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from Novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless response from the government has pushed the Service’s First Desk into mounting her own counter-offensive - but she’s had to make a deal with the devil fist. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything she’s fought for.

Meanwhile, still reeling from recent losses, the slow horses are worried they’ve been pushed further into the cold. Slough House has been wiped from Service records, and fatal accidents keep happening. No wonder Jackson Lamb’s crew are feeling paranoid. But they have they actually been targeted?

With a new populist movement taking a grip on London’s streets, and the old order ensuring that everything’s for sale to the highest bider, the world’s an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass.

Bu the slow horses aren’t famed for making wise decisions.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 7th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES is another fast-paced, action packed spy thriller that adds biting satire to the temperature of the nation. There is a sense of pieces being moved ready for further developments, most notably in the change in dynamic between Judd and Lady Di, and it’s not clear what the return of Sid will mean long term but the devastating ending and the question it leaves means I am very keen to read the next book.
The Blurb On The Back:

If life in the Intelligence Service has taught John Bachelor anything, it’s to keep his head down. Especially now, when he’s living rent-free in a dead spook’s flat.

So he’s not delighted to be woken at dawn by a pair of Regent’s Park’s heavies, looking for a client he’s not seen in years.

Benny Manors could be anywhere, provided it serves alcohol. So John sets out on a reluctant trawl through the bars of the capital, all the while plagued by the age-old questions: will he end up sleeping in his car? How many bottles of gin can be afford at London prices?

And just how far will Regent’s Park go to prevent anyone rocking the Establishment’s boat.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third of Mick Herron’s novella accompaniments to the JACKSON LAMB SERIES featuring the hapless milk men, John Bachelor, is a slickly written affair that blatantly alludes to the Jeffrey Epstein affair and its impact on the British royal family. There’s plenty of double dealing and hidden agendas and as ever, Bachelor has no clue of the bigger picture but it’s expensive for what it is and is probably for Jackson Lamb completists only.
The Blurb On The Back:

Tom Bettany is working at a meat processing plant in France hen he gets a voice mail from an Englishwoman he doesn’t know telling him that his estranged 26-year-old son is dead - Liam Bettany had a fatal fall from his London balcony.

Now for the first time since he cut all ties years ago, Bettany returns home to London to find out the truth about his son’s death. Maybe it’s the guilt he feels about losing touch with Liam that’s gnawing at him, or maybe he’s actually put his finger on a labyrinthine plot, but either way he’ll get to the bottom of the tragedy, no matter whose feathers he has to ruffle. But more than a few people are interested to hear Bettany is back in town, from incarcerated mob bosses to those in the highest echelons of MI5. He might have thought he’d left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody ever really walks away.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s excellent standalone spy thriller includes characters from the SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES, offering background on Coe and featuring Ingrid Tearney and Sam Chapman. The plot twists and turns neatly with Herron setting up strands and returning to them in unexpected ways and there’s a sense of sadness and regret going through the book, together a bleak cynicism such that the open ending doesn’t leave the reader with much reassurance or hope.
The Blurb On The Back:

What should have been a simply pick-up turns into a day-long nightmare for Bad Sam Chapman.


When an operational catastrophe puts a gun in the hands of a young man who then breaks into South Oxford Nursery School and take a group hostage, teacher Louise Kennedy fears the worst. But Jaime Segura isn’t there on a homicidal mission, and he’s just as scared as those whose lives he holds as collateral.

As an armed police presence builds outside the school’s gates, Bad Sam Chapman - head of the intelligence services’s internal security force, the Dogs - battles the clock to find out what Jaime is after, before those who are after Jamie find him first …


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s deftly plotted, taut spy thriller (set within the same world as the JACKSON LAMB SERIES and featuring bit player Sam Chapman) is a sophisticated ensemble piece set against the backdrop of post invasion Iraq. I loved how Herron splits the action between the characters to convey their viewpoints and the misdirection is masterly but some scenes are repetitive and I didn’t think the overall narrative voice quite worked.
The Blurb On The Back:

”We’re spies,” said Lamb. “All kinds of outlandish shit goes on.”


Like the ringing of a dead man’s phone or an unwelcome guest at a funeral …

In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him an outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.

And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can’t ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.

This time, they’re heading into joe country. And they’re not all coming home.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The 6th in Mick Herron’s JACKSON LAMB SERIES is slow to start and there is a sense of Herron snipping old plot strands in order to move players and events into place for the end game. However there’s a lot of good character development – particularly Lamb – the plot, when it gets going, moves at a good pace, there are 3 character deaths (one’s very sad) and the mysterious ending makes me desperate to find out what awaits Slough House next.

JOE COUNTRY was released in the United Kingdom on 20th June 2019. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
The Blurb On The Back:

Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone cafe, he knows he's witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly, he sets in train events which will alter lives. Bachelor himself, a hair's breadth away from sleeping in his car, is clawing his way back to stability; Hannah Weiss, the double agent whose recruitment was his only success, is starting to enjoy the secrets and lies her role demands; and Lech Wicinski, an Intelligence Service analyst, finds that a simple favour for an old acquaintance might derail his career. Meanwhile, Lady Di Taverner is trying to keep the Service on an even keel, and if that means throwing the odd crew member overboard, well: collateral damage is her speciality.

A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret information.

It's also what happens just before you hit the ground.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s latest addition to THE SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES is a tightly written short story that picks up where THE LIST left off with Herron’s customary wit and fast pacing but while it’s enjoyable, it’s more of an episode in a side series than a story in its own right and expensive for what it is. Unless you’re a hard core fan, my advice would be to wait for these novellas to be amalgamated into a collection rather than buying them separately.

THE DROP was released in the United Kingdom on 1st November 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
The Blurb On The Back:

Something’s happened.

A lot of things have happened.

If there was a way of rolling back time, she wondered how far she would go.


Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in London, with no family except an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the king of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice.

Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to thwart an international plot that puts the whole of Britain at risk.

Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero – if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mick Herron’s standalone psychological thriller is an interesting, if ultimately unsatisfying affair that makes excellent use of misdirection and manipulation and features a genuinely creepy antagonist but which suffers from the fact that Maggie is so passive and accepting that it becomes increasingly difficult to sympathise with her plight, coupled with an ending that I found disappointingly open-ended.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED was released in the United Kingdom on 7th June 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
The Blurb On The Back:

Dieter Hess, an aged spy, is dead, and John Bachelor, his MI5 handler, is in deep, deep trouble. Death has revealed that the deceased had been keeping a secret second bank account – and there’s only ever one reason a spy has a secret second bank account. The question of whether he was a double agent must be resolved, and its answer may undo an entire career’s worth of spy secrets.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This SLOUGH HOUSE short story by Mick Herron appeared in some hardback copies of LONDON RULES and is an entertaining read with some intriguing background on JK Coe and cameos from Jackson, River, Catherine and Lady Di but I wished the ending had been a little more definite. There’s also an excerpt from NOBODY WALKS, which I will buy on the strength of this but the book is expensive for what it is and as such is one for completists only.
The Blurb On The Back:

London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one.

Cover your arse.


Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble.

Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone's trying to kill Roddy Ho.

Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But, collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse.

It's a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The fifth in Mick Herron's superb JACKSON LAMB SERIES is another superb spy thriller packed with action, twists, turns, intrigue and plotting and laugh-out-loud humour, which had me engrossed from start (which features a chilling terrorist attack that plays with reader perceptions) to a finish that offers two massive bombshells and makes me desperate to read book six.
The Blurb On The Back:

Never outlive your ability to survive a fight.


Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail.

Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day. He knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man. ‘Nasty old spook with blood on his hands’ would be a more accurate description.

‘The old bastard’ has raised his grandson with a head full of guts and glory. But far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is consigned to Lamb’s team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House.

So it’s Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright’s panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ.

And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril …


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The fourth in Mick Herron’s JACKSON LAMB SERIES draws on the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the rise of the Islamist threat in another gripping read that’s packed with twists and turns, some shocking character deaths and a big reveal that promises to shape the coming books. The best thing about the book is the relationship between River and his grandfather and the implications for both because of the O.B.’s dementia and because of the revelations about both of their pasts. Being honest, the plot to kill the O.B. didn’t make a whole lot of sense given the way the story develops but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment. I was pleased to see Catherine return, although I wish that Moira had had more interaction with both her and Jackson because it would have been an interesting dynamic. Coe is a little too two-dimensional at the moment but it will be interesting to see how he develops in future books. The character deaths are genuinely shocking and while I’m surprised that Lady Di’s Machiavellian ploys haven’t seen her drummed out, it’ll be interesting to see what happens between her and the new First Desk, Claude Whelan (although Lamb is more than a match for both of them). I’m already impatient for the next book to come out but will check out Herron’s other work in the interim.

SPOOK STREET is released in the United Kingdom on 9th February 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
The Blurb On The Back:

Catherine Standish knows that chance encounters never happen to spooks.


She’s worked in the Intelligence Service long enough to understand treachery, double-dealing and stabbing in the back.

What she doesn’t know is why anyone would target her: a recovering drunk pushing paper with the other lost causes in Jackson Lamb’s kingdom of exiles at Slough House.

Whoever it is holding her hostage, it can’t be personal. It must be about Slough House. Most likely, it is about Jackson Lamb.

And say what you like about Lamb, he’ll never leave a joe in the lurch.

He might even be someone you could trust with your life …


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third book in Mick Herron’s JACKSON LAMB SERIES is a tense, twisting thriller that shows the development of the Slough House crew, brings in some old faces, expands on Catherine’s back story and is peppered with black comic one-liners so good that I kept turning the pages until the ending, which promises changes for the next book. Catherine is at the centre of the book, which is fitting given how central she’s become to the Slough House team and all she’s done to pull them together (which explains why they’re so willing to get her back). I like how calm she is and her emotional strength, which makes her final conversation with Jackson so devastating given that Jackson can’t help behaving like a complete ass at the slightest provocation. I was a bit frustrated with River’s impetuousness because it’s like he’s learnt nothing from the previous books (although it is true to his character) but his scenes with Spider Webb (whose fate you discover) have a poignancy to them. I liked that Shirley and Marcus have more to do here and their chemistry works well and Louisa’s self-destruction is believable and heartbreaking. I welcomed the return of Peter Judd whose scenes with Ingrid Tearney (who finally makes an appearance) are deftly written duels and Lady Di hovers in the background of it all with her schemes and plots as she tries to secure First Chair for herself. The ending throws the future of the Slough House team up in the air and I will definitely be reading the next book to find out what happens next.
The Blurb On The Back:

Dickie Bow is not an obvious target for assassination.


But once a spook, always a spook. And Dickie was a talented streetwalker back in the day, before he turned up dead on a bus. A shadow. Good at following people, bringing home their secrets.

Dickie was in Berlin with Jackson Lamb. Now Lamb’s got his phone, and on it the last secret Dickie ever told, and reason to believe an old-time Moscow-style op is being run in the Service’s back yard.

In the Intelligence Service purgatory that is Slough House, Jackson Lamb’s crew of back-office no-hopers is about to go live …


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second in Mick Herron’s JACKSON LAMB SERIES is another fast-paced, twisting spy thriller with Cold War roots, a dark sense of humour, sassy one-liners and a cheerful willingness to kill characters just as you’re starting to love them. What makes this series stand out is the way Herron brings his different plot strands together in a fluid way that combines Cold War paranoia with modern worries and motivations to keep the reader hooked. I love the machinations of Lady Di Taverner and Lamb’s ability to counter them, River’s relationship with the O.B. (who injects the Cold War history but only gives information up to a point) and I also enjoyed the way that the Slough House team is slowly coming together and Catherine’s role in achieving that (with Catherine rapidly becoming my favourite character by being the calm, ordered counterpoint to Lamb’s offensive chaos). The two newcomers – Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge – have promise and Ho’s more stereotypical attributes are slowly softening. Herron is brutal with his character deaths and I was very surprised by the ones in this book and am intrigued to see the effects in the future books. I still think Lamb’s personal habits are overdone but that’s the only bum note (no pun intended) in the book and I will definitely read the next in this series.
The Blurb On The Back:

You don’t stop being a spook just because you’re no longer in the game.


Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent’s Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb’s misfit crew of highly trained joes don’t run ops, they push paper.

But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a ‘slow horse’.

A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the internet.

And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren’t going to just sit quiet and watch …


The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The first in Mick Herron’s JACKSON LAMB SERIES is a smartly written, fast-paced espionage thriller with some great one-liners, a dark sense of humour and an overall vibe of SPOOKS meets Le Carre. The misfit cast of slow horses are broadly drawn (notably Roderick Ho, a stereotypical computer geek with no social skills) but all develop over the course of the book. River and Lamb get the most attention and there are hints of intriguing elements in both their backgrounds, which promises much for later books although Lamb’s personal habits are overdone. The plot itself is well crafted with plenty of twists and turns and I particularly enjoyed the way the plot incorporates the internal politics and ambitions of those within the Intelligence Service and the political classes (especially Peter Judd, a sly dig at a certain floppy haired Foreign Secretary) plus Herron is unsentimental at killing characters who you might think would become integral to the wider series. I also enjoyed the focus that Herron gives to Hassan Ahmed (the kidnapping victim who just wants to be a stand up comedian) whose ordeal gives the book emotional resonance. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the sequel.

Profile

quippe

December 2025

S M T W T F S
 12345 6
78910111213
14151617181920
212223242526 27
282930 31   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 4th, 2026 03:22 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios