The blurb:
At Regent's Park, the Intelligence Service HQ, new First Desk Claude Whelan is learning the job the hard way.
Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.
Over at Slough House, the last stop for washed up spies, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength—making a bad situation much, much worse.
Well, this one was fun. Brexit's happened, the usual political animals are making hay while the sun shines, so to speak. Back at Slough House, someone has just tried to kill Roderick Ho. One empathises.
The book opens with a terrorist atrocity that's deliberately cast—initially at least—as though it's happening in the fabled Somewhere Else Where That Stuff Happens, Not Here, then does the rug pull of revealing that it is in fact happening Here. From there, it proceeds through a tautly plotted progression with episodes of farce; the former makes the latter stand out even more sharply without undercutting either, which is a neat trick when you get down to it.
The focus of the slow horses does shift around a bit; aside from Jackson Lamb, River Cartwright was the main focus of the first novel, vied for lead in the next couple and then was back squarely in the spotlight for the previous novel, takes another step back to allow Shirley Dander to shine again. She's dealing with a lot—Marcus's death in the previous book, being sent to anger management classes and being off the coke for more than 60 days. We see a lot more of her interior this time around, and her scenes make her a really interesting character. She's still furious, dismissive of her time in anger management, dismissive of Marcus's memory, dismissive of her two months off drugs, but those have all changed her. Not hugely, but in small, basic ways: she thinks more now, rather than reacting in fury.
She's probably still a bit too fond of a monkey wrench as a solution, though.
The other character who steps up is Roddy Ho. It's interesting spending this much time inside the head of someone who is this self-deluded. We've always known that Ho thinks he's god's gift to everything and everyone...but seeing his thought processes up close and personal is, well, something else. That a character can be this cluelessly repulsive and yet not make you want to chuck the book across the room is something of a triumph for Mick Herron. Watching Roddy Ho be absolutely certain that his girlfriend actually likes him is like watching a car accident in slow motion: you know it won't end well, but you can't look away.
The one person we don't get to see up close and person is, as ever, Jackson Lamb. As usual, we can infer from his words and actions, but never with 100% certainty. I don't think we'll ever get much of a look inside his head—this is a character who takes keeping people at arm's length as being a god-given directive. And yet he's endlessly fascinating. It's tempting to do as others do and write him off as a mess, but there's a shark with big bloody teeth underneath that outer wreckage. Being a disguise is second nature for him and if we ever do get him as a point of view character, it'll undercut that savagely.
Started: 30 September 2025
Finished: 4 October 2025
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