Bookshot #186: Slough House

I heard good things about Slow Horses on Apple TV, so started it was hooked by the end of the first episode and promptly devoured it. (I even finished up the latest season thanks to Apple TV's free weekend over New Year's.) The show is incredible. Gary Oldman will, at some point, add to his already large collection of awards for his portrayal of Jackson Lamb and if she hasn't been nominated for anything for her role as Diana Tavener, Kristin Scott Thomas is overdue and will get there eventually.

All of that being said: I had never read any of the books, so I decided to change that. I picked up the latest in the series, not because I am opposed to starting at the beginning, but because I figured Apple TV was going to do an excellent job of adapting these things and I wanted to see what a book in the series that had yet to be adapted was like and Slough House fit the bill. (So far the show has adapted Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, and Spook Street.)

Slough House opens with a murder and it turns out Diana Tavener is very pleased with herself at the results. In the post-Brexit world, but budgets being a mess, she accepted some discreet outside assistance to send a message to the Russians following some general unspecified action on the part of their agents in the UK. (The book doesn't quite say so, but the timeline more or less matches up with the Salisbury Poisonings- and there are some references to a 'swapped spy' being poisoned.)

Life for the Slow Horses continues more or less as it always does, only with a twist: they've been erased from official existence. Somehow, they're still getting paid and still have jobs and pensions and the like. But officially, according to the systems at the Park, there's no trace of them anywhere. That might not matter all that much, but suddenly, old Slow Horses start getting killed off, one by one, and one of them is back from the dead.

River Cartwright is still trying to figure out what to do with his Grandfather's house out in the country and all of the contents and memories that go with it-- but then, a face out of his past, Sid Baker shows up. Believed to be dead- due to being shot in the head, it turns out that she survived, recuperated (somewhat), and has eluded the people that were coming to take her away-- allegedly back to the Hospital, but really to kill her, the same as the other Slow Horses. River finds her and immediately takes steps to protect her-- but gradually, Jackson Lamb and the rest of the team realize that something more sinister is afoot. 

At first, they thought the Park was using them as a training exercise for new agents (they were) but then when bodies of old colleagues started turning up, Jackson Lamb who is motivated by very little, but tends to get upset when his 'joes' start dying, starts digging around to see what is going on and figure it out. Diana's little deal has come with terms and conditions attached. Peter Judd,  one-time politician and now trying to set himself up as a Kingmaker behind the scenes has partnered with new media darling and internet bete noir Damian Cantor to finance her messaging sending to the Russians.

Only it turns out that Mr. Cantor hasn't been all that careful with the information he received and the disappearance of Slough House from the official records has led to a file of all the Slow Horses being passed to the Russians, who have been sending a message of their own. While Diana realizes that the price of her operation might be more expensive than she anticipated, Jackson Lamb and his team are sending a message of their own, though the price the Slow Horses pay for it might be higher than anyone expects.

I picked this book because I wanted one that Apple TV hadn't adapted yet and I think that was the right call because if this book is anything to go by, they've done a fantastic job of adapting these books. Either it's the power of suggestion and I'm just stuck associating Jackson Lamb and Diana Tavener with Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas in my head forever or Apple TV absolutely nailed these books. Also: damn it, I'm going to buy every single one of these damn things, aren't I? This was a beautiful book to read. I loved it. The pages turned, the action kept me guessing and they're not massive doorstoppers, so you can actually get through them and enjoy them without it ever feeling like a chore.

There's a lot out there comparing Mick Herron to John LeCarre and I think that's right. There's a touch of LeCarre to his writing-- I haven't read a ton of LeCarre, but what I have read has that sort of insular feel to the world of espionage. Everyone has secrets, everyone is twisted and dark inside, and oftentimes the whole point of the story is just figuring out how twisted and dark a character (either protagonist or antagonist) actually is. This isn't James Bond with gadgets, martinis, and lots of beautiful women, this feels closer to what you imagine the reality of espionage work might actually be. Not all the glamorous, brutal and necessitating unpleasant, occasional amoral compromises for the alleged 'greater good.'

(It's also worth considering: is this kind of approach to espionage writing uniquely British? Does it work in an American context? Does it work in any other context?)

Herron captures that sense perfectly. He has a genius for dialogue and his humor is dry, like a sherry before dinner. His dialogue is what makes this work-- the sort of verbal repartee and jousting between characters is sort of dripping with ambition and (usually) barely concealed disdain for one another. All the characters and I do mean all the characters are flawed in some way. 

Overall: The show is excellent, the books (at least so far) don't appear to be any less excellent. Watch the show, read the books, they're both worth your time-- doubly so if a good spy novel is something that's right up your alley. My Grade: **** out of ****