This is the first book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' (Slow Horses) series, about British MI5 agents who've botched up a mission or made some other egregious mistake. These spooks are cast out of spy headquarters at Regents Park and sent to dilapidated Slough House, where they're called 'slow horses.'
The slow horses are assigned mind-numbingly boring paperwork in hopes they'll resign. However, most of the slow horses hang in there, dreaming they'll get back to Regents Park some day. (Note: Slow Horses is now a television series.)
The Slough House books are thrillers laced with humor, and the series has great characters that you'll love.....or love to hate.
The man in charge of Slough House is former spy master Jackson Lamb, an offensive slob who insults his underlings, smokes too much, eats constantly, and disgustingly (and purposely) passes gas. Lamb's subordinates speculate he's the boss because 'he knows where the bodies are buried', and this may well be true. However, Lamb is also intuitive, smart, and capable....and despite everything, he looks out for his crew.
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The Slough House agents featured in this novel are:
🕵️ Catherine Standish - a prim-looking, middle-aged recovering alcoholic. Catherine's former boss at Regents Park committed suicide amidst a scandal that tainted Catherine.
🕵 River Cartwright - a young agent whose mistake resulted in over one hundred deaths at a train station, and millions of dollars in damage. River firmly believes he was set up, and he thinks he knows who did it.
🕵️ Louisa Guy - a (usually) capable agent who lost track of a gun runner she was following. As a result, a cache of weapons got onto the streets of London.
🕵 Min Harper - an unfortunate fellow who accidently left a top secret file on a train. The file was found and given to the BBC, which promptly broadcast the classified material. Min has been the butt of comedians' jokes every since.
🕵 Jed Moody - a former member of the MI5 'Dogs' (internal affairs investigators) who has some shady dealings in his file.
🕵 Roderick (Roddy) Ho - a computer genius and hacker extraordinaire. Roddy is a loner who delights in using his skills to mess up people's lives. Roddy was probably sent to Slough House because no one likes him.
🕵️ Sidonie (Sid) Baker - Sid is a mystery because no one seems to know why she's been relegated to Slough House. This REALLY irritates nosybody Roddy, because he wants to know everything about everybody.
*****
In this series' debut, a Pakistani-British college student named Hassan - who has ambitions to be a stand-up comic - is abducted by right-wing terrorists.
The terrorists broadcast videos of Hasan and threaten to behead him on camera in 48 hours.
Hassan's kidnapping is linked to an out-of-work, right-wing journalist called Robert Hobden, whom Jackson Lamb has had in his sights for years.
So Lamb decides to use the slow horses to investigate Hobden, and the Slough House agents attempt to rescue Hassan.
All this brings Lamb and the slow horses to the attention of Diana Taverner, who's 'second chair' (second in command) at Regents Park. Diana would DO ANYTHING to become 'first chair' and has put a plan into action.
As things turn out, there's a conflict between Slough House and Regents Park, and only one faction can win.
I enjoyed this fun espionage novel, my major critique being that the action constantly switches around among short scenes, which I found disruptive. Still I liked the story, the characters, and the finale, and I'll go on with the series.
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