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Slow Horses (Deluxe Edition) (Slough House) Paperback – November 24, 2020

by Mick Herron (Author)

4.3 23,761 ratings

Book 1 of 8: Slough House

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THE BOOK BEHIND the 1st season of SLOW HORSES, the APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES starring Gary Oldman in his Emmy-nominated role as Jackson Lamb

Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where 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 there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?

Book 1 of 8

Slough House
Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Soho Crime
Publication date

November 24, 2020
Dimensions

5.51 x 1.09 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1641292970
ISBN-13

978-1641292979
See all details

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Popular Highlights in this book

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The scary moments had won. Which sounded like a definition of ageing, to Catherine. The scary moments had won.
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They’re made up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not true.
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From the Publisher

slow horses, slow horses show, mick herron, slough house, jackson lamb

mick herron, slow horses, slough house, best espionage novels, best spy novels, spy fiction


	Dead Lions: Slough House book 2	Real Tigers: Slough House book 3	Spook Street: Slough House book 4	London Rules: Slough House book 5	Joe Country: Slough House book 6

Customer Reviews	15,476	19,265	17,374	15,749	13,643
Price	$12.19	$12.18	$17.06	$17.91	$13.29
	The disgraced MI5 agents of Slough House uncover a deadly Cold War-era legacy of sleeper cells and mythic super spies.	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.	What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a home for spies who forget their secrets are a secret, or does someone take care of them for good?	With the country beset by series of random attacks and one of their own marked for assassination, the Slow Horses rediscover their greatest strength—that of making a bad situation much worse.	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 purpose—vengeance.


	Slough House: Slough House book 7	Bad Actors: Slough House book 8	Standing by the Wall: The collected Slough House novellas	The Secret Hours

Customer Reviews	15,308	13,813	4,294	12,220
Price	$14.95	$20.37	$12.99	$15.59
	With a new populist movement taking hold and the corporate elite ensuring that everything's for sale, the Slow Horses are in a fight for their lives as they navigate dizzying layers of lies, power, and death.	A key member of a think-tank with a remit to curb the independence of the intelligence service has gone missing, and the trail of evidence leads back to MI5's Regent’s Park.	At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, including the never-before-published Christmas interlude 'Standing by the Wall.'	Discover a gripping standalone spy thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Slow Horses

Winner of the 2024 USC Scripter Awards for Best Episodic Series
Parade Magazine 110 Best Thrillers of All Time
Longlisted, Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

“The best in a generation, by some estimations, and irrefutably the funniest.”
—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

“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 Carré—is a terrific thing.”
—Gary Oldman

“Set in the Siberia of British intelligence, Mick Herron’s 2010 novel manages the rare feat of being comical, suspenseful and perceptive about the less-than-straight line that divides success and failure.”
—The New York Times

“Compulsively readable, tightly plotted.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Intricate plotting, full of twists . . . Herron can certainly write a real spy story, with all the misdirection and sleight of hand that requires. But it’s the surly Slough House mood, the eccentric characters, and Herron’s very black, very dry sense of humor that made me read one after the other without a break.”
—Laura Miller, Slate.com

“It's just great fun.”
—NPR, Morning Edition

“[Herron's] cleverly plotted page-turners are driven by dialogue that bristles with one-liners. Much of the humor comes from Herron’s sharp eye for the way bureaucracies, whether corporate or clandestine, function and malfunction. The world of Slough House is closer to The Office than to 007.”
—The Associated Press

“A funny, stylish, satirical, gripping story . . . Memorably seedy characters, sharp dialogue, complex plot. I’m hooked.”
—The Guardian

“This is blackly funny, tense and worryingly plausible. The most enjoyable British spy novel in years.”
—Mail on Sunday, Five-star Review

“[A] deliciously sleazy and sophisticated spy thriller.”
—The Irish Times

“These are terrific novels. The writing is very good. The sense of humour is there, and there's a certain amount of skepticism as well, which keeps you wanting to read.”
—J.D. Singh, CBC's The Next Chapter

“Subtle, detailed and utterly convincing.”
—The Crime Review(UK)

“Slow Horses is a fine thriller . . . it’s also a wonderfully funny, farcical, deeply cynical skewering of politics, bureaucrats, turf wars, and the Great Game.”
—Booklist

Praise for Mick Herron

“Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way . . . In Herron's book, there is no hiding under the desk.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“The sharpest spy fiction since John Le Carré.”
—NPR's Fresh Air

“Stylish and engaging.”
—The Washington Post

“[A] masterful thriller . . . The intricate plot, coupled with Herron's breezy writing style, results in superior entertainment that makes most other novels of suspense appear dull and slow-witted by comparison.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Like a good movie . . . grabs the reader from the first page.”
—Booklist, Starred Review

About the Author

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of six books in the Slough House series (Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, and the novella The List) and four Oxford mysteries (Down Cemetery Road, The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers), as well as the standalone novels Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and This Is What Happened. His work has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

This is how River Cartwright slipped off the fast track and joined the slow horses.

Eight twenty Tuesday morning, and King’s Cross crammed with what the O.B. called other people: ‘Non-combatants, River. Perfectly honourable occupation in peacetime.’ He had a codicil. ‘We’ve not been at peace since September ’14.’
        The O.B.’s delivery turning this to Roman numerals in River’s head. MCMXIV.
       Stopping, he pretended to check his watch; a manoeuvre indistinguishable from actually checking his watch. Commuters washed round him like water round a rock,
their irritation evident in clicking of tongues and expulsions of breath. At the nearest exit – a bright space through which weak January daylight splashed – two of the blackclad achievers stood like statues, their heavy weaponry unremarked by non-combatants, who’d come a long way since 1914.
       The achievers – so called because they got the job done – were keeping well back, as per instructions.
       Twenty yards ahead was the target. ‘White tee under a blue shirt,’ River repeated under his breath. Adding details, now, to Spider’s skeleton outline: young, male, Middle Eastern looking; the blue shirt’s sleeves rolled up; the black jeans stiff and new. Would you buy new trousers for a jaunt like this? He stuffed the information away; a question to be asked later.
       A rucksack on the target’s right shoulder listed, suggesting weight. The wire coiled into his ear, like River’s own, might have been an iPod.
       ‘Confirm visual.’
       River, touching his left ear with his left hand, spoke quietly into what looked like a button on his cuff. ‘Confirmed.’
       A gaggle of tourists crowded the concourse, their distribution of luggage suggesting they were circling the wagons. River skirted them without taking his eyes off the target, who was heading for the annexe platforms; those which waved off trains towards Cambridge, and points east.
       Trains generally less packed than the northbound HSTs.
       Unbidden images arrived: of twisted metal scattered along miles of broken rails. Of trackside bushes lit with flame, and hung with scraps of meat.
       ‘What you have to bear in mind’ – the O.B.’s words – ‘is that worst sometimes does come to worst.’
The worst had increased exponentially over the last few years.
       Two transport cops by a ticket barrier ignored the target but studied River. Don’t approach, he warned silently. Don’t come anywhere near me. It was the small details on
which enterprises foundered. Last thing he wanted was an audible altercation; anything that startled the target.
       The cops went back to their conversation.
       River paused, and mentally regrouped.
       He was of average height, this young man River Cartwright; was fair-haired and pale-skinned, with grey eyes that often seemed inward-looking, a sharpish nose
and a small mole on his upper lip. When he concentrated, his brow furrowed in a way that led some to suspect him of puzzlement. Today he wore blue jeans and a dark jacket. But if you’d asked him that morning about his appearance, he’d have mentioned his hair. Lately, he’d favoured a Turkish barber, where they go in close with the scissors, then apply a naked flame to the ears. They give no warning that this is about to happen. River emerged from the chair scoured and scalded like a doorstep. Even now, his scalp tingled in a draught.
       Without taking his eyes off the target, now forty yards ahead – without, specifically, taking his eyes off the rucksack – River spoke again into his button. ‘Follow. But give him room.’
       If the worst was a detonation on a train, next worst was one on a platform. Recent history showed that people on their way to work were at their most vulnerable. Not
because they were weaker. But because there were a lot of them, packed in enclosed spaces.
       He didn’t look round, trusting that the black-clad achievers were not far behind.
       To River’s left were sandwich outlets and coffee bars; a pub; a pie stall. To his right, a long train lingered. At intervals along the platform travellers negotiated suitcases through its doors, while pigeons noisily changed rafters overhead. A tannoy issued instructions, and the crowd on the concourse behind River swelled, as individuals broke away.
       Always, in railway stations, there was this sense of pent-up movement. A crowd was an explosion waiting to happen. People were fragments. They just didn’t know it yet.
       The target disappeared behind a huddle of travellers.
       River shifted left, and the target appeared again.
       He passed one of the coffee bars, and a sitting couple triggered a memory. This time yesterday River had been in Islington. His upgrading assessment involved compiling a dossier on a public figure: River had been allocated a Shadow Cabinet Minister who’d promptly had two small strokes, and was in a private ward in Hertfordshire. There seemed no process for nominating a substitute, so River had picked one off his own bat, and had followed Lady Di two days straight without being spotted – office/gym/office/wine bar/office/home/coffee bar/office/gym . . . This place’s logo sparked that memory. Inside his head, the O.B. barked a reprimand: ‘Mind. Job. Same place, good idea?’
       Good idea.
       The target bore left.
       ‘Potterville,’ River muttered to himself.
       He passed under the bridge, and turned left too.
       A brief glimpse of overhead sky – grey and damp as a dishcloth – and River was entering the mini-concourse that housed platforms 9, 10 and 11. From its outside wall half a luggage trolley protruded: platform 93/4 was where the Hogwarts Express docked. River passed inside. The target was already heading down Platform 10.
       Everything speeded up.
       There weren’t many people around – the next train wasn’t due to leave for fifteen minutes. A man on a bench was reading a paper, and that was about it. River picked up his pace, closing the gap. From behind him came a shift in the quality of the noise – from all-over babble to focused murmur – and he knew the achievers were drawing comment.
       But the target didn’t look back. The target kept moving, as if his intention was to climb into the furthest carriage: white tee, blue shirt, rucksack and all.
       River spoke into his button again. Said the words – Take him – and began to run.
       ‘Everybody down!’
       The man on the bench rose to his feet, and was knocked off them by a figure in black.
       ‘Down!’
       Up ahead, two more men dropped from the train’s roof into the target’s path. Who turned to see River, arm outstretched, waving him to the floor with the flat of his hand. The achievers were shouting commands:
       The bag!
       Drop the bag!
       ‘Put the bag on the ground,’ River said. ‘And get to your knees.’
       ‘But I don’t –’
       ‘Drop the bag!’
       The target dropped the bag. A hand scooped it up. Other hands grabbed at limbs: the target was flattened, spreadeagled, wiped on the tiles, while the rucksack was passed to River. Who set it carefully on the now vacant bench, and unzipped it.
       Overhead, an automated message unspooled around the rafters. Would Inspector Samms please report to the operations room.
       Books, an A4 notepad, a pencil tin.
       Would Inspector Samms
       A Tupperware box holding a cheese sandwich and an apple.
       please report to
       River looked up. His lip twitched. He said, quite calmly –
       the operations room
       ‘Search him.’
       ‘Don’t hurt me!’ The boy’s voice was muffled: he had a faceful of floor, and guns pointing at his head.
       Target, River reminded himself. Not boy. Target.
       Would Inspector Samms
       ‘Search him!’ He turned back to the rucksack. The pencil tin held three biros and a paperclip.
       please report to
       ‘He’s clean.’
       River dropped the tin to the bench and upended the sack. Books, notepad, a stray pencil, a pocket-sized pack of tissues.
       the operations room
       They scattered on the floor. He shook the rucksack. Nothing in its pockets.
       ‘Check him again.’
       ‘He’s clean.’
       Would Inspector Samms
       ‘Will somebody turn that bloody thing off?’
       Catching his own note of panic, he clamped his mouth shut.
       ‘He’s clean. Sir.’
       please report to
       River again shook the rucksack like a rat, then let it drop. the operations room
       One of the achievers began speaking, quietly but urgently, into a collar-mic.
       River became aware of someone staring at him through the window of the waiting train. Ignoring her, he began to trot down the platform.
       ‘Sir?’
       There was a certain sarcasm to that.
       Would Inspector Samms please report to the operations room.
       Blue shirt, white tee, River thought.
       White shirt, blue tee?
       He picked up speed. A transport policeman stepped forward as he reached the ticket bay but River looped round him, shouted an incoherent instruction, then ran full pelt back to the main concourse.
       Would Inspector Samms – and the recorded announcement, a coded message to staff that a security alert was taking place, switched off. A human voice took its place:
       ‘Due to a security incident, this station is being evacuated. Please make your way to the nearest exit.’
       He had three minutes tops before the Dogs arrived.
       River’s feet had a direction of their own, propelling him towards the concourse while he still had room to move. But all around, people were getting off trains, onboard announcements having brought sudden halts to journeys that hadn’t yet begun, and panic was only a heartbeat away – mass panic was never deep beneath the surface, not
in railways stations and airports. The phlegmatic cool of the British crowd was oft-remarked, and frequently absent.
       Static burst in his ear.
       The tannoy said: ‘Please make your way calmly to the nearest exit. This station is now closed.’
       ‘River?’
       He shouted into his button. ‘Spider? You idiot, you
called the wrong colours!’
       ‘What the hell’s happening? There are crowds coming
out of every –’
       ‘White tee under a blue shirt. That’s what you said.’
       ‘No, I said blue tee under –’
       ‘Fuck you, Spider.’ River yanked his earpiece out.
       He’d reached the stairs, where the crowd sucks into the underground. Now, it was streaming out. Irritation was its main emotion, but it carried other whispers: fear, suppressed panic. Most of us hold that some things only happen to other people. Many of us hold that one such thing is death. The tannoy’s words chipped away at this belief.
       ‘The station is now closed. Please make your way to the nearest exit.’
       The tube was the city’s heartbeat, thought River. Not an east-bound platform. The tube.
       He pushed into the evacuating crowd, ignoring its hostility. Let me through. This had minimal impact. Security. Let me through. That was better. No path opened, but people stopped pushing him back.
       Two minutes before the Dogs. Less.
       The corridor widened at the foot of the stairs. River raced round the corner, where a broader space waited – ticket machines against walls; ticket windows with blinds drawn down; their recent queues absorbed into the mass of people heading elsewhere. Already, the crowd had thinned. Escalators had been halted; tape strung across to keep fools off. The platforms below were emptying of passengers.
       River was stopped by a transport cop.
       ‘Station’s being cleared. Can’t you hear the bloody tannoy?’
       ‘I’m with intelligence. Are the platforms clear?’
       ‘Intelli –?’
       ‘Are the platforms clear?’
       ‘They’re being evacuated.’
       ‘You’re sure?’
       ‘It’s what I’ve been –’
       ‘You have CC?’
       ‘Well of course we –’
       ‘Show me.’
       The surrounding noises grew rounder; echoes of departing travellers swam across the ceilings. But other sounds were approaching: quick footsteps, heavy on the tiled floor. The Dogs. River had little time to put this right.
       ‘Now.’
       The cop blinked, but caught River’s urgency – could hardly miss it – and pointed over his own shoulder at a door marked No Access. River was through it before the
footsteps’ owner appeared.
       The small windowless room smelled of bacon, and looked like a voyeur’s den. A swivel chair faced a bank of TV monitors. Each blinked regularly, shifting focus on the same repeated scene: a deserted underground platform. It was like a dull science fiction film.
       A draught told him the cop had come in.
       ‘Which platforms are which?’
       The cop pointed: groups of four. ‘Northern. Piccadilly. Victoria.’
       River scanned them. Every two seconds, another blink.
       From underfoot came a distant rumble.
       ‘What’s that?’
       The cop stared.
       ‘What?’
       ‘That would be a tube train.’
       ‘They’re running?’
       ‘Station’s closed,’ the cop said, as if to an idiot. ‘But the
lines are open.’
       ‘All of them?’
       ‘Yes. But the trains won’t stop.’
       They wouldn’t need to.
       ‘What’s next?’
       ‘What’s –?’
       ‘Next train, damn it. Which platform?’
       ‘Victoria. Northbound.’
       River was out of the door.
       At the top of the shallow flight of stairs, barring the way back to the mainline station, a short dark man stood, talking into a headset. His tone changed abruptly when he saw River.
       ‘He’s here.’
       But River wasn’t. He’d leaped the barrier and was at the top of the nearest escalator; snapping back the security tape; heading down the motionless staircase, two deep steps at a time.
       At the bottom, it was eerily empty. That sci-fi vibe again.
       Tube trains pass closed stations at a crawl. River reached the deserted platform as the train pulled into it like a big slow animal, with eyes for him alone. And it had plenty of eyes. River felt all of them, all those pairs of eyes trapped in the belly of the beast; intent on him as he stared down the platform, at someone who’d just appeared from an exit at the far end.
       White shirt. Blue tee.
       River ran.
       Behind him someone else ran too, calling his name, but that didn’t matter. River was racing a train. Racing it and winning – drawing level with it, outpacing it; he could
hear its slow motion noise; a grinding mechanical feedback underpinned by the terror growing within. He could hear thumping on windows. Was aware that the driver was looking at him in horror, thinking he was about to hurl himself on to the tracks. But River couldn’t help what anyone thought – River could only do what he was doing, which was run down the platform at exactly this speed.
       Up ahead – blue tee, white shirt – someone else was also doing the only thing he could do.
       River didn’t have breath to shout. He barely had breath to push himself onwards, but he managed . . .
       Almost managed. Almost managed to be fast enough.
       Behind him, his name was shouted again. Behind him, the tube train was picking up pace.
       He was aware of the driver’s cabin overhauling him, five yards from the target.
       Because this was the target. This had always been the target. And the swiftly narrowing distance between them showed him for the youngster he was: eighteen? Nineteen? Black hair. Brown skin. And a blue tee under a white shirt – fuck you, Spider – that he was unbuttoning to reveal a belt packed tight with . . .
       The train pulled level with the target.
       River stretched out an arm, as if he could bring the finishing line closer.
       The footsteps behind him slowed and stopped. Someone swore.
       River was almost on the target – was half a second away.
       But close wasn’t nearly enough.
       The target pulled a cord on his belt.
       And that was that.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Soho Crime; Deluxe edition (November 24, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1641292970
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1641292979
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 1.09 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)
- #7 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)
- #8 in Political Thrillers (Books)

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4.3 23,761 ratings

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Mick Herron

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Mick Herron’s six Slough House novels have been shortlisted for eight CWA Daggers, winning twice, and shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year three times. 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.

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

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Customers find the plot engaging, thrilling, and interesting. They describe the writing style as sharp, witty, and clever. Readers describe the book as an excellent, delightful, and fun read. They also find the characters compelling and effective. Opinions are mixed on the pacing, with some finding it nice, while others say it starts slowly.

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238 customers mention "Plot"204 positive34 negative

Customers find the plot amazing, thrilling, and hilarious. They also say the story builds in a wonderful way, with a fast-paced plot and fleshed-out POV characters. Readers mention the book is a good spy thriller with ample room for backstory.

"...introduction to the characters and the series, and its plots are filled with enough twists to induce motion sickness...." Read more

"...out (while remaining faithful to the book and characters) and frankly more interesting, given how good the cast is and the length of time they have..." Read more

"...The characters are well drawn and the plot is as engaging as anything I’ve read recently...." Read more

"...He offers a fast-paced plot and fleshed-out POV characters packaged with a generous dollop of British humor...." Read more

193 customers mention "Writing style"139 positive54 negative

Customers find the writing style sharply witty and clever. They appreciate the fine descriptive prose, character development, and sentence crafting. Readers also mention the book is funny and has a dash of sophistication.

"...The dialogue is razor sharp. And the characters—especially Jackson Lamb—are sharply and hilariously drawn.So, five stars from me...." Read more

"I loved this book. The writing is exceptionally fine. The characters are well drawn and the plot is as engaging as anything I’ve read recently...." Read more

"The book is much too long and becomes a slog. The author is trying to introduce a lot of slow horses in his series, this is the first volume...." Read more

"...The author, Mick Herron, has a unique writing style that is both sharply witty and observant of human weaknesses...." Read more

190 customers mention "Readability"158 positive32 negative

Customers find the book excellent, delightful, and fun to read. They say it's a great summer read and non-stop reading is required. Readers also mention the plot is apt for this type of novel.

"...If you've seen the brilliant TV series, this is still worth a read, even though the series Season 1 is rather close to this direct-line plot, which..." Read more

"...end up devoting my reading time to the full series, but the first installment was great and has me looking forward to giving the next book a try,..." Read more

"Really good book. Spy thriller isn’t my usual genre but this was a book club book. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel...." Read more

"This novel was fast passed and incredible...." Read more

147 customers mention "Character development"125 positive22 negative

Customers find the characters compelling, effective, and perfectly cast. They also say the banter among the characters is priceless.

"...It is a brilliant introduction to the characters and the series, and its plots are filled with enough twists to induce motion sickness...." Read more

"Concise and compact, this stuffs a lot of plot, action and a great cast of characters into a surprisingly short book...." Read more

"I loved this book. The writing is exceptionally fine. The characters are well drawn and the plot is as engaging as anything I’ve read recently...." Read more

"...He offers a fast-paced plot and fleshed-out POV characters packaged with a generous dollop of British humor...." Read more

37 customers mention "Style"29 positive8 negative

Customers find the style imaginative, delightful, and engaging. They also say the book is well-crafted and neatly portrayed.

"Dialogue, characters, plot - perfect. Totally believable...." Read more

"...These characters have come fully formed from the author's imagination and I am definitely looking forward to seeing how they react together in the..." Read more

"...Well crafted, interesting characters and the plot works as well. Highly recommended if you like subtlety instead of over the top romps." Read more

"...Despite the post-cinematic approach the book is well crafted and literary." Read more

86 customers mention "Pacing"39 positive47 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some mention it starts slowly, but builds up as the reader reads. Others say it's a little slow, especially in the beginning.

"...As noted, it moves around fast. There are quick cuts within chapters, minor scene changes, that are not set off in any way...." Read more

"This novel was fast passed and incredible...." Read more

"...Slow Horses is missing the humor. Its tone is cynical. The people relegated to Slough House (hence Slow Horses) each have a reason for their exile...." Read more

"...However, pace picked up suddenly and it turned into an excellent read.Will be buying book 2 in the series" Read more

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George P. Wood

A Great Start to a Fantastic Series

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2023

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Slough House—Slough rhymes with cow—is where Britain’s MI5 sends intelligence officers it doesn’t want but won’t fire, in hope that the sheer drudgery of their assignments, combined with the dreadfulness of their boss, will lead those agents to quit. Some do. The ones who stick around are called “slow horses,” hence the title of this book.

Slow Horses opens with MI5 officer River Cartwright tracking a suspected terrorist through King’s Cross, one of Lond’s major railway stations. Unfortunately, the terrorist detonates a suicide vest before he can be apprehended, killing scores and causing millions in damage, billions in lost tourism revenue.

Just not in reality. The entire episode was a training episode taking place at King’s Cross. Yes, thousands of commuters were actually evacuated from the station, but other than that, no harm, no foul—except that Cartwright gets sent down to Slough House for crashing King’s Cross.

There, we might other denizens of this realm, which is governed by the rude, crude Cold War spymaster Jackson Lamb, who inherited his dominion for reasons that become clear only later in the novel.

The plot of Slow Horses centers on the kidnapping of a British subject, though by whom and for what reason is not immediately apparent. All that is known is that the kidnappers will decapitate him in 48 hours. Everyone naturally expects Muslim terrorists.

But here’s the thing: the victim is Muslim, but the terrorists are not. With everyone’s assumptions turned upside down, MI5 has the job of finding the victim before the kidnappers separate his head from his shoulders.

Then Slough House gets dragged into the mess in more ways than one, putting them in the crosshairs. The only solution? The slow horses need to outrace the Park—that is, Regent’s Park, where MI5 is headquartered—before they get stabbed in the back.

Slow Horses is the first in a series of novels by Mick Herron that focus on Slough House. It is a brilliant introduction to the characters and the series, and its plots are filled with enough twists to induce motion sickness. It’s a page-turner that keeps you in suspense to the end, marveling at the depths of deception spies are capable of. The dialogue is razor sharp. And the characters—especially Jackson Lamb—are sharply and hilariously drawn.

So, five stars from me. Read this book, then keep reading the entire series!

35 people found this helpful

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monesqe

Terrific little spy game book with a great character

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024

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Concise and compact, this stuffs a lot of plot, action and a great cast of characters into a surprisingly short book. It moves fast and jumps around, mostly in an endearing way (but see the last paragraph). The characters shine through anyway, especially Jackson Lamb. The twists and turns are great and the arrogance of the powerful is sort of classic here.

If you've seen the brilliant TV series, this is still worth a read, even though the series Season 1 is rather close to this direct-line plot, which often seems perfectly written for the screen. It is easy to see Gary Oldman speaking when Jackson Lamb is on the page here. The TV version admittedly does make this book a lot less essential. It's common for readers to say "The book is better," but I don't think that is true here. The TV series is notably more fleshed out (while remaining faithful to the book and characters) and frankly more interesting, given how good the cast is and the length of time they have to work. They bring this book to life in a way this short book can't quite equal.

If I had a quibble, it related less to the book--so, I'm not dinging another star--and more to the Kindle formatting of the book. As noted, it moves around fast. There are quick cuts within chapters, minor scene changes, that are not set off in any way. For example, there aren't caps beginning a new segment. (Some major cuts/scene changes have caps at the beginning of the new segment, but these quicker cuts do not.) Nor for these quick cuts do they use characters to space things out (like ##, whatever and so on). They just make a routine line break of no consequence--not even a double line break--and are then onto the next character's short scene. For example, on page 198 of my Kindle edition (as displayed on my phone) the last line of a conversation between Lamb and Taverner is: "How could this get worse?" Line break. The next sentence is: "'Because it's got to be stopped,' Hobden said." If anything, that cut gives a clue since Hobden is not part of the Lamb-Taverner conversation, but it at first looks like it is part of that conversation. Having to re-orient so quickly as the text blends into one scene after another is a little disorienting. Some formatting help would be nice.

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Jack Maguire

great read

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2024

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I loved this book. The writing is exceptionally fine. The characters are well drawn and the plot is as engaging as anything I’ve read recently. This genre tends to get derivative and a little boring but not this. I am excited to continue the series.

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Ian Chadwick

Read Mick Herron now. Right now.

Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2023

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Mick Herron's Slough House series is utterly terrific. They're full of sarcasm, snide remarks, verbal abuse, politically incorrect banter, fringe characters, and great stories about the intelligence community in the UK. I have enjoyed every one of them. If you're a fan of the genre, or of writers like LeCarre, Follett, and Fleming, I expect you will like them, too.

christmaself

Brilliant book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2024

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I loved this book and have just bought the others in the series. The intelligence is a breath of fresh air. The characterisation wonderful. It’s humorous but with acknowledged fundamental melancholy. Poignant without mawkishness.

ca mcmorland

Excellent

Reviewed in the Netherlands on April 10, 2024

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Well written, both serious and funny. If the rest of the series is this good I'll be happy.

glencora

Extremely enjoyable spy story

Reviewed in Italy on January 30, 2024

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I've ready the first three books in the series, and I'm certainly going to go on! They are very good in characters (really interesting and not stereotyped as usual in this kind of stories) and plots, which are smooth: again, something not exactly easy to find in spy stories. A John LeCarre' for the present time.

Prakash Nayak

atmosphere and character

Reviewed in India on December 18, 2023

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The voice brings out the moral, technical and real dilemmas of spooks, as they navigate real politik. It’s hits home in ways you wouldn’t want politics to.

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