This is the 4th book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' (Slow Horses) series, about British MI5 agents who've made a bad mistake and are relegated to working in a dilapidated building called Slough House. The agents, called 'slow horses', are given nothing but monotonous paperwork to do, and are itching to get back in the game.
The novels in this series are best read in order because of the continuing story arc.*****
The man in charge of Slough House is former spy master Jackson Lamb, an offensive slob who hurls insults at people, smokes too much, eats too much, and needs to shower and use deodorant. Regardless, Lamb feels compelled to look out for his 'joes' (agents), even if he thinks they're idiots.
The slow horse brigade currently working for Lamb consists of:
Louisa Guy - a sharp young woman who's usually reliable in a pinch;
Roderick Ho - an egocentric computer whiz with an inflated opinion of himself;
River Cartwright - an ambitious fellow whose grandfather was an MI5 agent.
Marcus Longridge - a good agent with a bad gambling problem.
Shirley Dander - a tough woman who'd waterboard a suspect (or slug just about anyone) if given an excuse.
Moira Tregorian - Jackson Lamb's new assistant, whose job it is to organize the tasks at Slough House.
Catherine Standish - Catherine left Slough House because she had her fill of working for Lamb. Even so, Catherine still maintains connections with the slow horses.
J.K Coe - an agent who developed PTSD after a frightening incident. Coe almost never speaks, and his hands are constantly playing an imaginary piano.
As the book opens, a flash mob dancing in a London mall ends with an explosion that kills forty people.
An investigation reveals that the men responsible for the bomb seem to have some connection to former MI5 agents. This opens up a HUGE can of worms for MI5 headquarters at Regents Park. To avoid a scandal, the head honchos at the Park scramble to shift the blame. The people leading the cover-up are Claude Whelan (the new first chair).....
.....and Diana Taverner (the second chair). Diana, ruthless as always, is willing to order people killed to accomplish the task.
Meanwhile, octogenarian David Cartwright (River's grandfather, aka the Old Bastard) - who was once very high up in Regents Park - is succumbing to dementia.
River fears David might accidently give away MI5 secrets, and River even fears the Park would terminate David for security reasons. As it happens, someone DOES try to kill David, which results in River hustling off to France to investigate who, what, and why.
All this, and more attempted murders, galvanize the slow horses into action.
The Slough House books are largely character driven, and Roderick Ho (Roddy) is especially entertaining in this novel.
Roddy, who's deluded himself into thinking he's irresistible to women, keeps talking about his girlfriend. Roddy is convinced the girl is really into him and the other slow horses are convinced the girl is imaginary.
There's plenty of excitement and danger in this book, and new information is revealed about some of the MI5 agents. Fans of the series will enjoy the novel.
Rating: 3.5 stars
In real life Jackson Lamb may not be as far from the truth as Bond or Bourne were but he was a brilliant creation by the excellent author Mick Herron. Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering Pemberton’s People in MI6 were for real and included characters who would have overshadowed the likes of Jackson.
ReplyDeletePemberton's People included Roy Astley Richards (inter alia Winston Churchill’s bodyguard), Peter 'Scrubber' Stewart-Richardson (an eccentric British Brigadier who tried to join the Afghan Mujahideen), Peter Goss (an SAS Colonel and JIC member involved in the Clockwork Orange Plot concerning Prime Minister Harold Wilson) and even the infamous rogue Major Freddy Mace (who featured in Hansard for all the wrong reasons and impudently highlighted his cat burgling and silent killing skills in his CV).
If real scoundrels operating in the dark are your cup of Novichok then read Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files espionage series about MI6. First though, browse some of the more recent brief news articles in TheBurlingtonFiles website. Soon you’ll be immersed in a world you won’t want to exit.
Beyond Enkription is a fact based spy thriller and a must read for espionage illuminati and cognoscenti as long as you don’t expect John le CarrĂ©’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots. Nevertheless, it has been heralded by one US critic as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Little wonder Beyond Enkription is mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.
See https://theburlingtonfiles.org/news_2022.10.31.php.
Thank you for the very interesting post. Who knew there were REALLy plenty of 'bad apples' in MI5 and MI6, other than the traitors who were caught. I'm going to get hold of 'Beyond Enkription.' I appreciate the tip. (I don't imagine the rogue agents were as disheveled, unhygienic, and flatulent as Jackson Lamb. That would have drawn an awful lot of attention to them đŸ™‚).
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