Slow Horses (Deluxe Edition) - (Slough House) by Mick Herron (Paperback)

About the Book

Intelligence agent River Cartwright, after being banished from high-profile work for incompetence, suspects a prominent British journalist with ties to an extremist party of being behind the kidnapping of a Muslim teenager.

Book Synopsis

A New York Times bestselling series

THE BOOK BEHIND THE FIRST SEASON OF SLOW HORSES, THE APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES STARRING GARY OLDMAN IN HIS EMMY-NOMINATED ROLE AS JACKSON LAMB.

Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they're called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle--not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?

Review Quotes

Praise for Slow Horses

Winner of the 2024 USC Scripter Awards for Best Episodic Series
Parade Magazine 110 Best Thrillers of All Time
Longlisted, Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

"The best in a generation, by some estimations, and irrefutably the funniest."
--Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

"I'll tell you what, 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 Carré--is a terrific thing."
--Gary Oldman

"Set in the Siberia of British intelligence, Mick Herron's 2010 novel manages the rare feat of being comical, suspenseful and perceptive about the less-than-straight line that divides success and failure."
--The New York Times

"Compulsively readable, tightly plotted."
--Los Angeles Times

"Love Herron's intricate plots and darkly funny narrative, blending espionage with character-driven drama . . . I recommend reading the books in order before watching the television adaption."
--The Globe and Mail

"Intricate plotting, full of twists . . . Herron can certainly write a real spy story, with all the misdirection and sleight of hand that requires. But it's the surly Slough House mood, the eccentric characters, and Herron's very black, very dry sense of humor that made me read one after the other without a break."
--Laura Miller, Slate.com

"It's just great fun."
--NPR, Morning Edition

"[Herron's] cleverly plotted page-turners are driven by dialogue that bristles with one-liners. Much of the humor comes from Herron's sharp eye for the way bureaucracies, whether corporate or clandestine, function and malfunction. The world of Slough House is closer to The Office than to 007."
--The Associated Press

"A funny, stylish, satirical, gripping story . . . Memorably seedy characters, sharp dialogue, complex plot. I'm hooked."
--The Guardian

"This is blackly funny, tense and worryingly plausible. The most enjoyable British spy novel in years."
--Mail on Sunday, Five-star Review

"[A] deliciously sleazy and sophisticated spy thriller."
--The Irish Times

"These are terrific novels. The writing is very good. The sense of humour is there, and there's a certain amount of skepticism as well, which keeps you wanting to read."
--J.D. Singh, CBC's The Next Chapter

"Subtle, detailed and utterly convincing."
--The Crime Review (UK)

"Slow Horses is a fine thriller . . . it's also a wonderfully funny, farcical, deeply cynical skewering of politics, bureaucrats, turf wars, and the Great Game."
--Booklist


Praise for Mick Herron

"Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way . . . In Herron's book, there is no hiding under the desk."
--The New York Times Book Review

"The sharpest spy fiction since John Le Carré."
--NPR's Fresh Air

"Stylish and engaging."
--The Washington Post

"[A] masterful thriller . . . The intricate plot, coupled with Herron's breezy writing style, results in superior entertainment that makes most other novels of suspense appear dull and slow-witted by comparison."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Like a good movie . . . grabs the reader from the first page."
--Booklist, Starred Review

About the Author

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied at Oxford. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling Slough House espionage series, four Zoë Boehm mysteries, and several standalone novels. His work has won the CWA Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in Crime Writing, the Gold Dagger, the Steel Dagger, the Theakstons Novel of the Year Award, the Barry Award, the Ellery Queen Readers Award, the Raymond Chandler Award, and the Pepe Carvalho Award. Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road have both been adapted into Apple Original series. Mick is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Oxford and writes full-time.