Review of "Slough House: Slough House #7" by Mick Herron

This is the 7th book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' (Slow Horses) series, about British MI5 agents who've made a serious mistake and are relegated to working in a dilapidated building called Slough House. 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 slings insults at people, smokes too much, eats too much, and has terrible hygiene. Regardless, Lamb feels compelled to look out for his 'joes' (agents), even if he thinks they're idiots.



By now Diana Taverner has been first chair at Regents Park for a while, and she's a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Lady Di's ambition, hubris, and impatience led her to make a big mistake.



The Russians had used the nerve agent Novichok to kill a person on British soil, so Diana retaliated by engineering an assassination in Russia.



To finance the hit, Diana (secretly) took money from a cabal of wealthy British citizens, and two members of the syndicate, politically ambitious Peter Judd.....



.....and media tycoon Damien Cantor, seem to think Diana owes them - and they're not shy about asking for favors.



Diana has pulled another shady stunt as well. She's 'disappeared' Slough House and all its personnel from Regents Park's records, and hasn't explained why. Meanwhile, some of the slow horses notice they're being followed, and two former slow horses have been murdered. It's clear Jackson Lamb and his joes need to take some action.



In the meantime, the slow horses stay true to form. Catherine Standish hands out/organizes the boring assignments created by Lamb - like making lists of people who borrow 'suspicious' library books;



River Cartwright ditches his paperwork, but races into action when necessary;



Louisa Guy tries to follow the rules more than most of the slow horses;



Lech Wicinski makes it his business to suss out who's following him;



Shirley Dander's cocaine addiction and hot temper cause trouble;



and Roddy Ho makes us laugh with his deluded narcissism, but does good work with his computer hacking skills.



There's plenty of action in this book, and some big surprises. This thriller is a must read or fans of the series.

Rating: 4 stars