Bad Actors
The Instant #1 Sunday Times Bestseller
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4.4 • 448 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*
THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'A pitch-perfect espionage thriller' Sunday Times
'The foremost living spy novelist in the English language' New Statesman
****
In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere.
A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace.
Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5's Regent's Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent's Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5's radar.
Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation.
In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they'll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.
*Includes the short story Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude*
'This is entertainment of the highest class' Literary Review
'The man is a genius' The Spectator
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mick Herron’s Inside Story: This book is another veer towards the political, and investigates the disappearance of a mysterious character. It's about a superforecaster, which is a weird concept, but was very much talked about in [2020]. He’s recruited to a government think tank, run by a character with ties to Downing Street, who is himself a sociopath, really, as many of these kind of people often are.”
I also reintroduce a character from earlier books, who was previously edged out of power—Claude Whelan, who hasn't appeared in the last few books, was at one time leading the intelligence service. I brought him back to run the investigation to find out what happened to this superforecaster. And he quickly starts to suspect that it's actually the intelligence service itself that has had a hand in the matter.”
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.
Customer Reviews
Carry On
Another episode of unbelievable farce…. That you just can’t put down. The characters leap off the page in the brightest shades of grey which are in contrast to the darkness of the deeds by the darker players. I should really hate these books but crave more of them. Type faster Mick
Excellent
Excellent. Truly books you can’t put down
Bad Actors
Love Mick Heron’s writing. Black humour shines in this one, easy dialogue that had me laughing out loud for all the right reasons at all the wrong things.