'Slow Horses' by Mick Herron is the first installment in the 'Slough House' series, introducing readers to a group of MI5 misfits banished to Slough House after falling out of favor with the main office. Led by the unconventional and sharp-witted boss Jackson Lamb, the slow horses find themselves entangled in a complex case involving British Nazis, corruption within British intelligence services, and a high-stakes rescue mission. As the story unfolds, the characters' intricate backgrounds, dark humor, and unexpected twists keep readers engaged, offering a fresh and character-driven take on the British spy genre.
The plot of 'Slow Horses' revolves around the slow horses at Slough House, former MI5 agents relegated to mundane tasks and hoping for a chance at redemption. When a young Pakistani man is kidnapped by right-wing extremists, the slow horses, under Jackson Lamb's leadership, must navigate through internal politics, betrayal, and a race against time to save the hostage. The narrative unfolds with a mix of dark humor, compelling character development, and intricate plot twists, setting the stage for a gripping and entertaining spy thriller.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include political violence, themes of terrorism, and references to corrupt political behavior.
From The Publisher:
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 net. And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch . .
'As a master of wit, satire, insight… Herron is difficult to overpraise' Daily Telegraph
'Irresistible writing … ironclad storytelling and off-kilter humour' Financial Times
'Mick Herron's novels are a satirical chronicle of modern Britain . . . in their gleefully shocking way, his books reflect the trajectory of the nation' Economist
*Picked as a 'best thriller of the last decade' by The Times*
*Soon to be a TV series starring Oscar-award winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb*
'The new king of the spy thriller' Mail on Sunday
'Razor-sharp prose, fully formed characters and an underlying pathos make this series the most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times
Ratings (20)
Incredible (4) | |
Loved It (9) | |
Liked It (3) | |
It Was OK (1) | |
Did Not Like (3) |
Reader Stats (46):
Read It (21) | |
Want To Read (22) | |
Not Interested (3) |
What can you read after
Slow Horses?
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.
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