Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "Bad Actors: Slough House #8" by Mick Herron

Friday, June 7, 2024

Review of "Bad Actors: Slough House #8" by Mick Herron

This is the 8th book in Mick Herron's 'Slough House' (Slow Horses) series, about British MI5 agents who are 'on the outs' with Regents Park and consigned to working in a decrepit building called Slough House. There the slow horses are tasked with boring paperwork in hopes they'll quit. 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, who might be the most obnoxious person on the planet. Lamb hurls insults at people, smokes too much, eats too much, is purposely flatulent, wears dirty clothes, has holes in his socks, and always needs a shower. Regardless, Lamb is a clever fellow, and it's hard to get one over on him.

The slow horses are never given anything useful to do, so they sometimes embark on their own 'missions.' This time, an operation gone askew has unfortunate repercussions.

Shirley Dander - who would probably fight a Tyrannosaurus rex - attacked a bus with a clothes iron. Shirley is now in a rehab facility called San, for anger management.

Shirley blames her situation on Catherine Standish, who insists this 'incarceration' is for Shirley's own good.

Lech Wicinki got into some scuffles, and is recovering from his injuries.

Louisa Guy is beating up a mannequin, pretending it's Roddy Ho - whom she blames for the fiasco.

Roddy Ho is oblivious as usual. With his homemade light saber at his side, Roddy is auditioning girls to play Princess Leia at a Cosplay event, hoping to 'get lucky.'

Concurrently, a new slow horse named Ashley Khan is unhappily settling into Slough House. Ashley blames Jackson Lamb for her plight, and she's planning revenge.

Meanwhile, there are mischievous antics in government circles. The prime minister is a useless figurehead......

.....and the government is really being run by the prime minister's aide, a manipulative sleazebag called Anthony Sparrow.

Sparrow plans to get all the government agencies, including MI5, under his control. This will require him to corral Regents Park first chair Diana Taverner.

To accomplish his nefarious goals, Sparrow assembles a think tank, which includes a Swiss academic named Dr. Sophie de Greer. Sophie is a 'superforecaster' of election trends, and an invaluable asset.

However Sophie has disappeared, and Sparrow is anxious to find her. So Sparrow contacts his lofty connections, and gets former Regents Park first chair Claude Whelan to look for her. Whelan's investigation leads to murmurs of 'waterproofing' and 'Red Queen', which have profound reverberations for Diana Taverner.

From here, the plot is very twisty, and comes to involve Russian intelligence agents, including First Desk of the Russian secret service, Vassily Rasnokov. Rasnokov has sneaked into Britain somehow, and Diana Taverner and Jackson Lamb have to scramble to discern his motives.

As usual the story includes plenty of dark humor, as well as misdirection, mistaken identity, manipulation, etc. The climax is a huge action scene, where an oddball partnership develops. Author Mick Herron can be ruthless with his characters, both the good guys and the bad guys - so you never know what's going to happen.

This is a good addition to the Slough House series, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Rating: 4 stars

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Barb's Book Reviews

Friday, June 7, 2024

Review of "Bad Actors: Slough House #8" by Mick Herron

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