Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Offhand, I can't think of any spy thrillers I've read before. Obviously I've seen The Ipcress File, and the Le Carre adaptations starring Alec Guinness, but I haven't actually sat down and read any of the books behind them. I have my dad to thank for nudging me towards Mick Herron's Slough House series, of which Slow Horses is the first volume.
About a year ago I started listening to the American spy comedy podcast Mission Rejected, and since I'd taken to calling my parents daily during lockdown and was somewhat lacking in conversation topics, I told my dad about it. He suggested I give Mick Herron's novels a go, if inept spies were what I was after. Dark satire, rather than comedy, but most enjoyable. They weren't available via the library ebook service, and pandemic restrictions have meant the Library of Mum and Dad has been off-limits for 18 months, plus of course if you've been here before you'll know I've been trying to read the overlooked books on my shelves during lockdown. However, I read a Guardian interview with Mick Herron earlier this year and it prompted me to buy the first book in the series (as an ebook, to limit clutter).
“Plotting is pretty much secondary to me,” he says. “What really interests me is the characters and getting to grips with them, and them getting to grips with each other.”
Charlotte Higgins interview with Mick Herron, The Guardian, 15 Jan 2021
As you might guess from that quote, the mission is not the important bit, or rather, it doesn't matter that much what it's about. It's all in the context of the War on Terror, with some stereotypical far-right nutcases kicking about. The meat of the book though is the relationships between the has-beens (or never-weres) at Slough House, and between Slough House as a whole and the 'proper' spies at Regent's Park. None of whom bear any resemblance to the old-fashioned gentlemen in the Alec Guinness dramas. Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, is very much the Andy Dalziel of MI5 - crude, abrasive, but underestimate him at your peril. There's also a walk-on part for Peter Judd, a right-wing politician described as a buffoon with floppy hair and a bicycle. Can't think who he reminds me of...
Herron is good at sleight of hand, and there were a few places where I was misdirected and had to flick back a few pages to work out why. I also enjoyed his use of 'if a passenger on the bus were to glance through the window, this is what they'd see' kind of thing, rather than it all being from one character's point of view. I doubt it's a realistic picture of life in the modern secret service, but it's full of interesting characters and I'm looking forward to working my way through the remaining six novels plus a few novellas.
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