SLOUGH HOUSE 1: SLOW HORSES – MICK HERRON

*Pre-order Clown Town, the ninth novel in Mick Herron s Slough House series, now* *Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden* The most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War The Times To have been lucky enough to play Smiley in one s career; and now go and play Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron s novels – the heir, in a way, to le Carre – is a terrific thing Gary Oldman **** Spooks are supposed to be stealthy . . . But those who make a noisy mess of their careers end up in Slough House. This is Jackson Lamb s kingdom: a dumping ground for spies who ve screwed up. Once high fliers, they re now slow horses, condemned to a life of pushing paper as punishment for crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal. In drab and mildewed offices, these highly trained spies moan and squabble, stare at the walls, and dream of better days – not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse, and the one thing they have in common is their desire to be back in the action. So when a young man is kidnapped and held hostage, his beheading scheduled for live broadcast on the net, the slow horses aren t going to just sit quietly and watch. And unless they can prove they re not as useless as they re thought to be, a public execution is going to echo round the world. The most enjoyable British spy novel in years Mail on Sunday The new spy master Evening Standard