Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2023. but it also leaves me in a quandary as I don't want to say anything that will give even the slightest spoilers for the delights between these covers so I'm just going to say that if you're not a Herron fan, do yourself a favour and start this series from the beginning; and if you are, you'll need no urging from me to get your hands on this as soon as you possibly can. All that remains is to dive in & find out what fresh hell Jackson Lamb (AKA Mick Herron) & his crew stumble into this time. Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins. Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford. Required fields are marked *. Behind the scenes, a more sinister story plays out. Description. However, when two Britons came across the perfume bottle in which the nerve agent had been carried, one of them died. As always there was a sale on, high-street retail being mostly zombie since You-Know-What, but even at reduced prices, trainers were mad. Unfortunately, I read this book in just over day , one of the minor blessings of lockdown and a cold wet winter although I suspect it would have taken very little longer even without that. This team of MI5 agents at Londons Slough House is united by a common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves. In 2008, inspired by world events, Mick began writing the Slough House series, featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. As the slow horses try to work out whats going on, they find themselves caught up in events outside their control and in the cross hairs of a ruthless enemy who doesnt care about collateral damage . After years spent as the bottom, the slow horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens the future of MI5. Jun-2010; Against a background of Brexit, Novichok poisonings and Yellow Vest protests, the remaining slow horses are dealing with the recent violent loss of two associates. Convert currency Hed been seven. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time. Book review: Slough House by Mick Herron (Slough House #7) All rights reserved. Unable to add item to List. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Please try again. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we dont use a simple average. River Cartwright, is away in Kent, mourning the death of the OB, short for the Old Bastard who was Cartwrights grandfather, surrogate father and was a service legend. I always enjoy Mr. Herron and his superb stories and characters . For us, the return of Lamb and his slow horses spies cast aside by MI6 is reason enough to spend a few hours in their company. Dig deeper into Mick Herrons critically acclaimed espionage series with these short novels set in the slow horses universe. Slough House is Mick Herrons seventh novel about his team of unloved, incompetent though often marvellously effective MI6 spies. I earn commission on any purchases made through these links. Beautifully written but too short and not what I expected, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2021. His humor and wit crept into the dialogue at frequent and unexpected moments. Herron grounds his novels around notable real-life events for satirical purposes, and this time he concocts a story around Brexit, the Yellow Vest protests and the Russian Novichok assassinations. It may be the last book, but I don't know. Slough House - Mick Herron 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. And yes, the book does end on a cliffhanger. Perhaps Jackson Lamb has outstayed his welcome. At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, including the never-before-published Christmas interlude 'Standing by the Wall. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold. British author Herron's superb seventh Slough House novel (after 2019's Joe Country) opens with an unidentified woman's assassination whose significance gradually becomes clear in this darkly satiric update on the "slow horses," spies who have each made a colossal mistake and have been assigned to MI5's Slough House . Lots to laugh about while being careful not to miss a word. I have really enjoyed Mick Herron's writing since discovering 'Slow Horses' back in August 2018. Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2023. Save for Later. But are they actually targets? This is a darker, scarier Herron. Something went wrong. Your email address will not be published. The wickedly funny character of Jackson Lamb is destined to be an icon in spy literature. While two agents are dispatched on that babysitting job, an old Cold War-era spy named Dickie Bow is found dead, ostensibly of a heart attack, far from his usual haunts. The characters are brilliant., Patrick Neale on BBCs The Oxford Book Club. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Blackmail. Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2023. A character I usually find hilarious is curiously irritating in this latest outing for the ever changing Slough House crew. Cantor would have found out the hard way that you never feed a cat just once. This isn't a book to skim read., , hes a world-bringer, the creator of a still-growing fictional universe with its own gravity, lingo, and surface tension., Terrific spy novel . Praise for Slough House "I'll tell you what, to have been lucky enough to play Smiley in one's career; and now go and play Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron's novels--the heir, in a way, to le Carr--is a terrific thing."--Gary Oldman The "slow horses," as theyre called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Beautifully written but too short and not what I expected, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2021. So I just read it all in one somewhat elongated gulp. I always enjoy Mr. Herron and his superb stories and characters . . Lets be honest. Theyre still getting paid but no longer formally exist and things get more sinister when Louisa Guy discovers that someone from the Service is trailing her and the other slow horses find that they are also being followed. He shows great style in melding drama and humor in the ongoing saga of Slough House. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, By purchasing this title, you agree to Audible's, Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at. Espionage. Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023. . Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? Can Detective Harry Grimm find the truth and save her before it's too late? Sarah Shaffi. His humor and wit crept into the dialogue at frequent and unexpected moments. : It continued the great writing, wonderful characters and complicated plot that filled the rest of the books. At base, Louisa Guy reports that she was tailed by an MI6 spy from Regents Park, the centre of MI6 operations and the hallowed turf to which all slow horses want to return. Small towns are full of secrets. Slough House Series | Mick Herron View all copies of this ISBN edition: Buy New Learn more about this copy. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. : I found ( and I realise I am risking opprobrium upon my head) Le Carre somewhat pompous and boring - too much of the public schoolboy for me. Lie still. Herron has provided another winning entry in what is becoming both a critical and commercial hit. Catherine Standish is a middle-aged recovering alcoholic whose misfortune it was to be the personal assistant to a traitor. , Language not long ago. 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. And while the main thing about trainers was they had to feel right, not look good, still: they had to look good. When one of their own is kidnapped, the Slow Horses must outwit rogue agents at the highest levels of British Intelligence, and even to Downing Street itself. With a new populist movement taking hold of Londons streets and the old order ensuring that everythings for sale to the highest bidder, the worlds a dangerous place for those deemed surplus. Read it, you'll see what I mean. Follow I Read, Therefore I Blog on WordPress.com. It is always a joy when a new addition to Mick Herron's superb Slow Horses series makes an appearance, and believe me when I say this one lives up to all my high expectations, smart, razor sharp satire and comic humour, unparalleled in its ability to follow and echo the nightmare that is our contemporary British politics and Brexit. All in all and nitpicks aside, I thought this was a great read in a series where theres been no let up in quality and I genuinely cannot wait to see what Herron does next with these characters. Author Mick Herron is just 58, and the crime publishing imprint Baskerville has secured the rights to three more upcoming titles from Herron - one standalone and two more Slough House books. . 'All kinds of outlandish, Now, for the first time, Mick Herrons short ficti, Set in the same world as the Slough House series, , A governmental think-tank, whose remit is to curb , Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude, *A Slough House Christmas short story from the Sun, Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas, At last in one volume: the collected Slough House . Learn more about the program. Get help and learn more about the design. 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 its 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. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2021, This, the seventh book in the Jackson Lamb series, does not disappoint. So I just read it all in one somewhat elongated gulp. , as his mother kept stressingtechnically apparently meaning in every possible sense, including the legal, barring his mothers own feeling that the natural order had been disturbedand was, equally technically, on the market, though at a price the agent had declared way too optimistic.. Drama, sadness, playfulness and great humour. Please try again. That's when things got weird. Hed grown up in his grandparents house, having been abandoned there by a mother whose horizons hadnt, at the time, included future property rights. Read it, you'll see what I mean. : Spook secrets were dangerous to friends and foes alike, and the old man had made plenty of both down the years. I am not sure I can read any more. It is a place of desperation and despair where all inhabitants strive to return to "The Park," but no one ever has. Slough House - the crumbling office building to which failed spies, the 'slow horses', are banished - has been wiped from secret service records. Slow Horses Creator Mick Herron - Live on Stage in London ', CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of 2021, I'll tell you what, to have been lucky enough to play Smiley in one's career; and now go and play Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron's novelsthe heir, in a way, to le Carris a terrific thing., Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera Stanhope series, Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus Novels, Herron has certainly devised the most completely realised espionage universe since that peopled by George Smiley., Mick Herron is one of the finest writers of his generation., Steve Cavanagh, author of the Eddie Flynn novels, the seventh installment of Mick Herrons ripping good series of spy novels. Just get ready for a jaw-dropping development at the start - and a poignant ending. Several other members of the team think that it may have happened to them too, though their incompetence makes it difficult to be sure. In fact, listening to this has made me even more curious to see the tv series. Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Slough House (Slough House Series #7) by Mick Herron, Paperback EXCERPT: The study remained like a showroom in a vacant property - books, chairs, curtains; the shelf with its odd collection of trophies: a glass globe, a hunk of concrete, a lump of metal that had been a Luger; the desk with its sheet of blotting paper, like something out of Dickens, and the letter opener, which was an actual stiletto, and had once belonged to Beria - and if David Cartwright had left secrets in his wake they'd be somewhere in that room, on those shelves, among a billion other words. The gags are still there but the satire's more biting. | Try Prime for unlimited fast, free shipping. Their boss, Jackson Lamb is still keeping his team busy with pointless and unproductive assignments: following up social media absconders (#gonequiet), failures to pay fines or potential safe-houses for non-friendlies. The audio version is narrated by Sean Barrett. Im skeptical. Dieter Hess, an aged spy, is dead, and John Bachelor, his MI5 handler, is in deep, deep trouble. But they have they actually been targeted? And not just one cliff either; each thread I wanted wrapped up just stops. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. He is the author of the Slough House espionage series, four Oxford mysteries, and several standalone novels. Mick Herron: 'I look at Jackson Lamb and think: My God, did I write 7 by Mick Herron RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 2021 As if its tendency to self-destruct weren't efficient enough, the British establishment's last depository for spies too old, compromised, or incompetent to defend queen and country is under attack from every side. Over at Slough House, with Shirley Dander in rehab, Roddy Ho in dress rehearsal, and new recruit Ashley Khan turning up the heat, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation . #BookReview 'London Rules' by Mick Herron #spy #thriller I would have liked to have got a bit more emotion in the scenes between her and River given the flirtation between them in SLOW HORSES but Herrons very restrained, showing touches of Rivers guilt over what happened to her at the same time as gently indicating there could be something more here as well. But I think hes got too old and too thin. Meanwhile, the countrys being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and the slow horses are about to rediscover their greatest strengththat of making a bad situation much, much worse. Do you embrace it? 'Cover your arse' is the first rule to live by for Jackson Lamb's team of spies in London Rules, fifth in the Slough House thriller series by Mick Herron. There are a lot of characters and rapid changes of scene, and so you do have to pay attention - which I find harder while listening than eye-reading, but I did enjoy the narrators range of voices. Slough House is the seventh book in the Slough House/Jackson Lamb series by award-winning British author, Mick Herron. As ever, Jackson Lamb heads the team. Well done. 'Slough House' Review: Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than A character I usually find hilarious is curiously irritating in this latest outing for the ever changing Slough House crew. He rules his group with invective, coarseness and vituperation yet is protective as a mother hen when they are threatened. Grimm Up North: A DCI Harry Grimm Crime Novel (DCI Harry Grimm Crime Thrillers), A Shot To Die For: The Ellie Foreman Mystery Series (An Ellie Foreman Mystery), The Ambassador's Wife (THE INSPECTOR SAMUEL TAY NOVELS), Foreign Deceit (David Wolf Mystery Thriller Series). Yet somehow, in book after book, Mick Herron finds highly plausible ways of putting these screwups in the cross-hairs of dangerous enemies. Can Miles save them before it's too late? Learn more. Slough House Mick Herron ISBN: 9781641292375 Published: 02/09/2021. , Dimensions I'd like to imagine them in Wimbledon somewhere! made Rivers jaw spasm. The only slight nagging doubt is whether it will maintain the sky high quality standards. Hear No Evil (Large Print) (Hidden Norfolk), Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. There are yellow-vest protestors on the street, and former Home Secretary Peter Judd, an . As the agents dig into their fallen comrades circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets. My reason for four stars is the "blankety blank" cliffhanger ending. Herron does leave open the potential of a rescue (and I am really anxious to get the next book so that I can see how it plays out) but on past form, I cant say that Im hopeful. I listened to the audio version narrated by Andrew B Wehrlen and found it an utterly engaging tale. The The Rip-It is a USSSA Fast Pitch event in Peoria & Glendale, AZ and will be held from 11/06/2021 to 11/07/2021 There is a lot going on in this book with two main plot lines why Slough House has been deleted from the Services records and the fallout from Lady Dis decision to sock it to Russias GRU. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass. Herron writes squeakingly well-plotted spy thrillers . The ones that looked good were, anyway. Slough House by Mick Herron - I Read, Therefore I Blog Trainers were in the basement. On a whim, Jack Shepherd walked out of his Washington law practice and became a university professor in Bangkok. Meanwhile, in Regents Park, Diana Taverners tenure as First Desk is running into difficulties. One Alzheimer's center claims to care about residents. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything shes fought for. My reason for four stars is the "blankety blank" cliffhanger ending. Kill us? At the same time Ho has hacked into the Parks computer system and discovered that all traces of Slough House have been expunged from the records. I am currently well into Bad Actors desperate to know if certain casualties from this book survived, and even hoping for a tiny spoiler so as to prepare myself for the worst, if that is to be the outcome. Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. Treat those you despise with humanity, especially if the reason you despise them is that they have none. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they cant be trusted anymore. Try again. , Language Sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting., [Herron is the] le Carr of the future . ISBN 13: 9781641293099. . The Atlantic. The Slow Horses, as its inmates are known, think they are being followed. . Great spy read! January 4, 2021 The Slough House series is centered on the misanthropic Jackson Lamb and his menagerie of failed spies. I would pine for it. The main series development is the return of Sid Baker, which was first teased in LONDON RULES but finally Herron reveals that yes, she did survive SLOW HORSES and has spent the last few years recuperating in a Service facility in the Lake District. Addiction loves challenge, because challenge provides an excuse to fail. Slough House Series in Order by Mick Herron - FictionDB If you aren't reading the Slough House spy novels yet, what are you waiting for? Paperback $16.95. Mick Herron could not be more different and all the better for it. B. 4.8 (59 ratings) Try for $0.00. This book, the last of the series, was the best. The "slow horses," as they're called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. You feed a cat, it owns you ever after. Slough House (Slough House, #7) by Mick Herron | Goodreads For us, the return of Lamb and his slow horses spies cast aside by MI6 is reason enough to spend a few hours in their company. , Print length More books by Mick Herron. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger award for Dead Lions . Does the Service have a home for spies who forget their secrets are a secret, or does someone take care of them for good? If that was happening, River needed to stop it. (LogOut/ For me the perfect Jackson Lamb would be Timothy Spall. Hope Herron writes many more. Thanks for the review. Old habits, lost loves, and new blood have the Slow Horses struggling to stay focused, but an old enemy, now out of hiding, may bring them close for a common purposevengeance. 03/22/2021. You do not want to mess with him, as several characters in this book will discover. , Hardcover Because I already know that lurking inside is an intricate plot wrapped around plenty of wit & humour. I'd like to imagine them in Wimbledon somewhere! Mick Herron is not kind to his characters. not long ago. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while the most recent, Joe Country, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Traffic calmed by nearby lights; buses a regular fixture. Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. In his best and most ambitious novel yet, Mick Herron, "the le Carr of the future" (BBC), offers an unsparing look at the corrupt web of media, global finance, spycraft, and politics that power our modern world. I was very disappointed in the ending of this novel. (LogOut/ This book was a much improved entry in this series. This entry was posted in Book Love and tagged books, MI5, Mick Herron, Slough House, spy thriller on February 12, 2021 by sandradan1. This book, the last of the series, was the best. Hes already won a number of awards, and the development by Apple TV of a series, based on the books and with Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, should only increase its popularity. It is a place of desperation and despair where all inhabitants strive to return to "The Park," but no one ever has. It continued the great writing, wonderful characters and complicated plot that filled the rest of the books. Louisa Guy, another member of the team who has been there from the beginning, is probably the safest pair of hands at Slough House. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2021. A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret information. , in these post-You-Know-What times. Its refusal to budge suited River, for the moment. Not so much a soundtrack; more an audible toothache.