Bad Actors
The eighth book in the series behind SLOW HORSES, an Apple Original series now s treaming on Apple TV+
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4.3 • 88 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
THE EIGHTH BOOK IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES BEHIND SLOW HORSES, AN APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES NOW STREAMING ON APPLE TV
Mick Herron, “the le Carré of the future” (BBC), expands his world of bad spies with an even shadier cast of characters: the politicians, lobbyists, and misinformation agents pulling the levers of government policy.
“Confirms Mick Herron as the best spy novelist now working.”—NPR's Fresh Air
In London's MI5 headquarters a scandal is brewing that could disgrace the entire intelligence community. The Downing Street superforecaster—a specialist who advises the Prime Minister's office on how policy is likely to be received by the electorate—has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, who was once head of MI5, has been tasked with tracking her down.
But the trail leads him straight back to Regent's Park itself, with First Desk Diana Taverner as chief suspect. Has Taverner overplayed her hand at last? Meanwhile, her Russian counterpart, Moscow intelligence's First Desk, has cheekily showed up in London and shaken off his escort. Are the two unfortunate events connected?
Over at Slough House, where Jackson Lamb presides over some of MI5's most embittered demoted agents, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation . . .
There are bad actors everywhere, and they usually get their comeuppance before the credits roll. But politics is a dirty business, and in a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing are the norm, sometimes the good guys can find themselves outgunned.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Politics past and present complicate a missing-persons case in this witty outing of Mick Herron’s beloved Slough House espionage series. When government think tank “superforecaster” Sophie de Greer goes missing, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, is charged with finding her. But as the inept rejects of Slough House get drawn in, they turn over some long-forgotten rocks which lead to suspicions that MI5’s own ambitious Diana Taverner may be involved in more than the search. Mick Herron excels at building plot twists while his hilarious cast of misfits, under the direction of the legendarily filthy Jackson Lamb, piece it all together. Pitting Lamb’s slow horses against his boss and the bureaucracy that rejected them, Herron adroitly depicts all the resentment his wonderfully drawn outcasts have against their overlords, adding belly laughs to the first-rate spy thriller plot.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The disappearance of Sophie de Greer, a "superforecaster" who predicts voter reactions to British government policies, drives Herron's terrific eighth Slough House novel (after 2021's Slow Horses). Since de Greer might be a Russian plant, two important people want her found: Anthony Sparrow, the prime minister's slimy enforcer, because he hired de Greer and wants to spare the government humiliation, and Diane Taverner, MI5's ruthless chief, because she knows Sparrow will blame her if de Greer turns out to be a spy. The actual work of finding de Greer falls to the so-called slow horses of Slough House, "the fleapit to which Regent's Park consigns failures, and where would-be stars of the British security service are living out the aftermath of their professional errors." Every piece counts in the intricate jigsaw puzzle of a plot, but the book's main strength is its dry, acerbic wit (Sparrow is "a homegrown Napoleon: nasty, British and short"). The result is an outstanding mix of arch humor, superb characterizations, and trenchant political observations. The forthcoming Apple TV adaptation of the series is sure to win Herron new fans.
