Slow Horses
The bestselling thrillers that inspired the hit Apple TV+ show Slow Horses (Slough House Thriller 1)
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4.2 • 939 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 most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times
Slough House is the outpost where disgraced spies are banished to see out the rest of their derailed careers. Known as the 'slow horses' these misfits have committed crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal while on duty.
In this drab and mildewed office these highly trained spies don't run ops, they push paper. Not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse and the one thing they have in common is they want to be back in the action.
When a boy is kidnapped and held hostage, his beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net. And whatever the instructions of their masters at the Intelligence Service headquarters, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch.
'Captivating' Christopher Brookmyre
'Wonderfully cynical' Bernard Cornwell
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mick Herron’s Inside Story: I never intended to create a series. This novel was going to be a one-off. But I was interested in the notion of failure, I think, because I was writing about people who were excluded from the real business of espionage. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable writing actual spy novels and trying to realistically portray how the secret or intelligence services work. So my spies were not part of that world.”
Originally, my intention had been to end that book with something of a bang and dispel any notion of a sequel. But as I approached the end of the novel, I realised that I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to stay with these characters and continue writing about them, so I adjusted the ending accordingly and carried on. I didn’t plan [an alternate] ending or anything, I don’t plan novels in great detail, but my vague notion was that a bomb would go off in the department. But I’ve kept Slough House intact, so I can revisit. This is a real building, it’s a place I walked past every day on my way to work at one point, and I called it Slough House. I’m delighted to see in Slow Horses, they’ve got permission to use the actual frontage of the building. It’s precisely the building I’m writing about in these books.”
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
Jackson Lamb.. a great character!
I’ve seen series 1-4 on Apple TV but thought I’d give the books a go too.. started a little slow compared to the TV show, but a really great story overall. Jackson Lamb’s character definitely comes through with those witty one liners!
Action meets sarcasm
For anyone who has watched the tv series, reading the book is a surprise. Full of dialogue, stark opinions, unusual expressions and funny sarcasm if that is a thing. Having said that, the adaptation is just spot on. There are things who cannot fill the screen. Also the unpredictable style will use events or characters to pull the reader in areas where maybe the situation didn’t hold some content so apparently but will prompt hilarious, sharp observations to anyone who knows London enough.
Off the beaten track.
Fantastic romp
Loved the rattling yarn and the sudden surprises.