Spook Street: Slough House Thriller 4

Product Information

It turns out that crime writers like Italian, especially risotto. Mostly, though, the talk was of agents and editors. When Herron first drafted “Slow Horses,” he planned to blow up Slough House. (He kills off characters all the time: “It’s not a thriller if it’s not thrilling.”) But then he decided he might want to stay a little longer in that house and reimagined the ending. The book came out in 2010; a couple of years later, he finished a sequel, “Dead Lions.” This winter, it’s Season 2 of the Apple series. At the time, however, he couldn’t find a publisher in his own country. What happens when a high-level spy starts showing signs of dementia? If he's unable to keep old secrets, will someone take care of him for good? All espionage aficionados are—or soon will be—reading Herron. But it’s high time, too, that readers of literary fiction embrace him in the way they have John le Carré.” You get the picture. For my twelfth birthday he bought me le Carré’s collected works. I can still remember what he said about them.” In 2003, Heron published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road. It was the first volume in a four-book series about Zoë Boehm, an Oxford private detective. [4]

What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a retirement home for those who know too many secrets but don’t remember they’re secret? Or does someone take care of the senile spy for good? Sheer fun. Herron is spy fiction’s great humorist, mixing absurd situations with sparklingly funny dialogue and elegant, witty prose.” This ease of expression adds an extra dimension to what would in any case have been a skilful plot with extremely well-drawn characters. Spook Street is arguably even better than Real Tigers, Herron’s last Slough House novel, and cannot be too highly recommended. Yes, yes,” Herron said. “Bye, sweetheart.” And to me: “It’s too wet to go walking. She’s gone to the shops.” We stared out at the slashing rain.

Lamb is convinced that there is a connection with a suicide bombing that has just taken place in West London. The novel is concerned with establishing precisely how the missing man, the mysterious house in France and the bombing are connected. The way in which this is accomplished shows a grasp of surveillance tradecraft that seems totally professional. One scene in particular where a spy is followed by another who, in turn, is followed by two more is very cleverly written. However, as well as being a spy novel, this is at the same time a thriller. As it progresses and the mystery becomes clearer the suspense mounts. In the light of what we are told at the beginning, much of what emerges comes from a most surprising source. You do realize,” Herron told the execs slowly, “that in the book I’m writing right now I kill him off?” At the start of this beautifully written and ingeniously plotted standalone from Herron (Nobody Walks), 26-year-old mail room employee Maggie Barnes is trying hard not to get caught late one Continue reading » It's all sheer fun. Herron is spy fiction's great humorist, mixing absurd situations with sparklingly funny dialogue and elegant, witty prose * The Times *

Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas (2022) - Includes all novellas in the Slough House series published as of 2022. Robotham shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger". Books+Publishing. 14 August 2020 . Retrieved 16 August 2020. Terrific . . .it’s a real pleasure to watch the super-smart if damaged Slough House agents rising to the occasion.” I’m a radical feminist, as you know,” Lamb might have said, stubbing out his cigarette. “But the hot flashes always get these old girls in the end.”

Slow Horses' Renewed Through Season 4 at Apple TV+". The Hollywood Reporter. 1 June 2022 . Retrieved 17 June 2022. In spite of their low status within the agency, the agents of Slough House will soon find themselves in the middle of something that threatens not just themselves, but all of MI5. Stylistically, you can draw comparisons with the work of Raymond Chandler, though Herron keeps a tighter grasp on his narrative than Chandler ever did . . . Herron is a master of timing, word by word, sentence by sentence. His language creates its own world, with streaks of satire and loss that prevent it from becoming too comfortable.” At Slough House, life is harder than ever. Brexit has taken its toll, members are dying in strange circumstances, and the office has been wiped from official records. They're beginning to get a bit paranoid. Herron] does it all with a darkly deadpan humor that is as scathingly funny as it is irreverent. There’s no let up, no let down, it’s one hell of a tale told masterfully.”

Nobody Walks (2015)– this book uses some of the Slough House world and characters, but it's not officially part of the seriesThere’s a Donald Trump Junior?” Lamb asks, incredulous. “And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.” This is irresistible writing suggesting a lovechild of le Carre and Joseph Heller's Catch-22: ironclad storytelling and off-kilter humour * Financial Times, Books of the Year * Droll, fast-paced, and with a cast of crazy characters, you wouldn’t want to work at Slough House but you certainly want to read about it.” Herron’s strength is in examining at close hand the absurdities, conflicts, and dangers of the intelligence agency as an institution at the center of some of the most central conflicts in the 21st century.” Herron's short stories have been regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and some are collected in the book, All the Livelong Day, published in 2013.

That all changes when a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the internet. The slow horses see connections between the case and some of what they've been observing, making it a perfect opportunity to try and redeem themselves.Don’t you people ever talk about bloody axes and fingerprints and serial killers?” I asked, disappointed. So it's Lamb they call to identify the body and hewill do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril . .