This is the seventh in the Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb series, which probably needs no introduction. The 309 pages continue the downbeat, yet lethal, espionage world of the marginalised Secret Service employees located in London’s fictional Slough House.
Thrown together as Service almost rejects the inmates of Slough House suffer a living purgatory, grotty conditions and their own mixture of dangerous delusions, flaws and addictions. They are united only in cowering under the tyranny of their older boss ex-cold war veteran and spectacularly gross anti-hero Jackson Lamb-unvarnished inter-generational friction. The urban settings and relationships depicted must owe something to Hogarth.
Novichok poisonings, Brexit and insidious populist politics all combine to propel a suitably toxic plot to a partial resolution. The characters are careened along by a mad situation and cope by making desperate decisions. Can Jackson Lamb right his ship?
Dark humour and dry satire are fused, sparking, into the writing.
Politician, entitled (thinks he is a) fixer and “ITS ALL ABOUT ME” character Peter Judd plays a prominent part, which Herron presents as a prolonged satirical performance. No prizes for guessing which UK politician Judd must have been based on!
Immediate uninhibited dialogue, description and narration keep the story racing along as another metaphorical earthquake hits the slow horses in Slough House. Slow horses being the term for the marginal Secret Service no hopers, the series has developed its own idiom.
This book is set pre-Covid as is book eight “Bad Actors”. The stories are an antidote to the suave fantasy of James Bond. Herron presents a cracking spy thriller and a wicked political satire for the price of one. Go and slouch about in Slough House, just watch where you step!
Mark's Reviews 