This is the 5th 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 at Slough House, 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 morons.
Lamb outdoes himself in this book, with his insults and put-downs, and Lamb seems even more unhygienic than ever, with his long dirty toenails sticking out of his holey socks, and his habit of sticking his hands down his pants to scratch.
'London Rules' means covering your butt, and MI5 has reason to do it again in this book. The trouble starts with Roddy Ho, a talented computer hacker with no people skills who's deluded himself into thinking he's irresistible to women.
In the previous book, Spook Street, a pretty girl named Kim Park lured Roddy into a relationship in order to milk him for money. Roddy thought Kim was TOTALLY into him, though Kim ALWAYS had a reason for not spending the night. Now Kim has finagled Roddy into REAL trouble.
The horror starts with a terrorist attack on the English village of Abbotsfield, which leaves 12 people dead. This is followed by an explosive thrown into a penguin exhibit called The Watering Hole, and a bomb in a London train.
In the midst of these events, there are two attempts on Roddy's life. First, a car tries to run Roddy down, but he's listening to music and doesn't notice.
Luckily, slow horse Shirley Dander observes the incident, and knocks Roddy out of the way. In his inimitable narcissitic fashion, Roddy interprets this as Shirley making a move on him.🙂
Second, someone take a shot at Roddy, and the gun is connected with the terrorist attack at Abbotsfield. This confluence of incidents gets the slow horses speculating, and J.K. Coe, who worked in psych-eval before being relegated to Slough House, has a startling insight.
The terrorists are following a strategy conceived by British intelligence, to destabilize troublesome regions. The steps are: 1. Destroy the village; 2. Poison the watering hole; 3. Cripple the railway; 4. Assassinate a populist leader.
Once Lamb learns the plan originated with MI5, it's a short step to determining that Roddy Ho gave a classified paper to his girlfriend Kim, who's working with the terrorists.
All this means that 'assassinate a populist leader' is next on the terrorists' agenda. The slow horses, in their bumbling way, hope to stop the assassination, though they don't know the identity of the target. There seem to be two prime candidates: fashionable MP Dennis Gimball, who lobbied for Brexit and hopes to be the next Prime Minister;
and Zafar Jaffrey, a Muslim mayoral candidate whose popularity is on the rise.
Slow horses River Cartright and J.K. Coe go to a venue where Gimball is scheduled to speak;
and slow horses Louisa Guy and Shirley Dander drive to an appearance by Zafar Jaffrey.
There's action and adventure at both venues, as well as some surprises.
While all this is occurring, MI5's second chair, Diana Taverner is (as usual) takng steps to cover her butt. To prevent the public from learning the terrorists are using a British plan, Diana orders a hit on them (in other words, don't catch them, kill them).
There's lots more going on in the story, including a scheme to sneak an ISIS member into England; Roddy Ho being 'arrested' by MI5, and (hilariously) thinking he's in protective custody; a cross-dressing politician who's threatened with being outed; a columnist with a political agenda; and more.
Herron's books - a mixture of humor and espionage - are always entertaining, and this is an especially good one.
Rating: 4 star
Mick Herron's Slow Horses in the Slough House anti-Bond series is brilliant on screen and paper and it is great news to see a splendid new author challenging the Fleming, Cornwell and Deighton claims to be emperor of the espionage fiction throne. No doubt British Intelligence will be annoyed that such an anti-Bond production can succeed as, of course, was the case with Harry Palmer in the films based on Len Deighton's novels.
ReplyDeleteAnother not dissimilar anti-Bond film production might be on its way based on TheBurlingtonFiles series of spy novels but unlike the Slough House series and Len Deighton's works it is more fact based than fiction. Interestingly, the protagonist in TheBurlingtonFiles has been likened to a posh Harry Palmer with a dry sense of humour akin to that of Jackson Lamb.
The first thriller in TheBurlingtonFiles series was called "Beyond Enkription". It was released in 2014. The remaining five volumes in the series have been stalled for "legal and security" reasons. Nevertheless, Beyond Enkription is an intriguing unadulterated stand-alone thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
Beyond Enkription 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, unlike Slow Horses, Beyond Enkription is mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.
Thank you for your comments.🙂🥀🌺
DeleteIt's great to have some variety in the espionage genre, and Mick Herron's sense of humor in the Slough House novels makes them so much fun. That Jackson Lamb.....I'm surprised someone doesn't bump him off! I'll look out for a film or tv adaptation of the TheBurlingtonPlace series.