Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas - by Mick Herron (Paperback)

About the Book

"Espionage. Subterfuge. Blackmail. Mystery. Humor. Revenge. Failure. Success. All this and more in a tight package of five novellas by Mick Herron, author of the Slough House novels, the books that inspired Slow Horses from Apple TV+. For fans new and old, Standing by the Wall is both an excellent introduction to the extended literary universe of Mick Herron and an immersive expansion of said universe. Meet more bad spies and even worse detectives. Race against time to solve mysteries with no easy conclusion. And understand the origins of Jackson Lamb, Mick Herron's most enigmatic, controversial character. The five novellas in this collection-including one never-before-published look into the past of Slough House-show Mick Herron as the undisputed master of the modern spy narrative, staying true to the classics of the genre while updating the form for a whole new generation of espionage readers"--

Book Synopsis

At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, including the never-before-published Christmas interlude Standing by the Wall.

Espionage. Blackmail. Revenge. Cunning. Slapstick. State secrets dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. All this and more in a tight package of five novellas by Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Slow Horses. From the troubled recruitment of a new MI5 informant to a botched information transfer, Herron's novellas capture the drama, humor, and high stakes of everyday life in the world of spycraft, a world rife with both legends and secrets, where thrill-seeking and loneliness are ubiquitous and deadly, and where the lines between friends, enemies, and lovers are perpetually blurred by circumstance and subterfuge.

For fans new and old, Standing by the Wall is an excellent introduction to the extended literary universe of Mick Herron's Slow Horses. Collection includes: The List, The Marylebone Drop, The Catch, The Last Dead Letter, and Standing by the Wall.

Review Quotes

Praise for Mick Herron

"Confirms Mick Herron as the best spy novelist now working."
--NPR's Fresh Air

"Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way."
--The New York Times Book Review

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

"Suspense, spycraft, dry wit and vulgar humor are all well-deployed in this satisfying work by Mr. Herron, whose style can accommodate everything from a tough action scene to a lyrical elegy."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Herron writes squeakingly well-plotted spy thrillers. More than that, he composes--at the rate of a pulpist--the kind of efficient, darkly witty, tipped-with-imagery sentences that feel purpose-built to perforate my private daze of illiteracy."
--The Atlantic

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

About the Author

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of the Slough House espionage series, four Oxford mysteries, and several standalone novels. His work has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.