Slow Horses
Slough House Thriller 1
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4.1 • 346 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
*Now a major TV series starring Gary Oldman*
'The most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times
'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
****
Spooks are supposed to be stealthy . . . But those who make a noisy mess of their careers end up in Slough House.
This is Jackson Lamb's kingdom: a dumping ground for spies who've screwed up. Once high fliers, they're now slow horses, condemned to a life of pushing paper as punishment for crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal. In drab and mildewed offices, these highly trained spies moan and squabble, stare at the walls, and dream of better days - not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse, and the one thing they have in common is their desire to be back in the action.
So when a young man is kidnapped and held hostage, his beheading scheduled for live broadcast on the net, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quietly and watch. And unless they can prove they're not as useless as they're thought to be, a public execution is going to echo round the world.
'The most enjoyable British spy novel in years' Mail on Sunday
'The new spy master' Evening Standard
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This thriller’s title, like so much of its story, is a misdirection—Slow Horses moves with the force of a stampede. Assigned to the lowly Slough House, disgraced British intelligence agent River Cartwright seeks redemption by trying to stop a beheading before it’s broadcast live. Mick Herron’s methodical pacing and characterisation explain why he’s become one of the UK’s most dependable spy novelists. This novel’s a must-read for fans of le Carré and Deighton.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Banished to London’s Slough House—the junkyard for disgraced MI5 agents—for botching a high-profile training exercise, River Cartwright spends his days sifting through garbage and transcribing phone conversations in Herron’s riveting spy thriller. His boss, Jackson Lamb, who governs Slough House as if it’s his own kingdom, makes sure the “slow horses” know they’ll never get back to high-profile work at Regent’s Park. River, bored with his tedious assignments, discovers that one of his fellow agents has been lifting information from Robert Hobden, a well-known journalist. When a Muslim teenager is kidnapped and a video promising to decapitate him appears online, River wonders if it’s connected to Hobden, who has ties to the extremist British Patriotic Party. Herron (Smoke & Whispers) avoids the easy cliché of misfits banding together to right a wrong, instead painting his slow horses as complex characters who are just as fallible as their “faster” counterparts.
Customer Reviews
Slow Horses
Put simply, I liked this book. A very descriptive story with enough depth of plot & characters to fully engage the reader & ensure interest in the next book in the series.
A game of chess plays out with action, intrique, and amusing moments peppered along it’s course
A great story of subterfuge with interesting characters, action, and amusement thrown in
Great read
Enthralling and brilliant. Can thoroughly recommend.