Reviews

The Marylebone Drop by Mick Herron

tgaughan's review against another edition

5.0

Following on from The List, we see John Bachelor's fortunes continue to tumble. A great story interwoven into the Slough House series. And here we are introduced to a forthcoming resident of Slough House too.

sarahhamatera's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

egray444's review against another edition

4.0

I like these novellas scattered within this series. The plots are interesting and the characters have small ties into the main story line.

kimmym's review against another edition

4.0

This is another short story in the Slough House series (Slough House was clearly the theme of my December reading!). It takes place between books five and six, and includes characters introduced in The List. This also added some information to the recent books in the main series I’d read and I appreciated seeing how they tied in to the world of Jackson Lamb and his slow horses.

apelsz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

twillick's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

digitalgypsy66's review against another edition

funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

arodericks's review against another edition

4.0

3.75

saareman's review

4.0

A Slow Horse Novella
Review of the Recorded Books audiobook edition (June 4, 2019) of the original Soho Crime paperback (October 30, 2018)

The Slough House aka 'Slow Horse' novellas are running a parallel plot to the full novels of the series. I've previously read [b:The List|23636636|The List (Slough House, #2.5)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453497408l/23636636._SY75_.jpg|43241398] (#2.5 2015) and now The Marylebone Drop aka The Drop (#5.5 2018). These are currently followed by [b:The Catch|48550232|The Catch (Slough House, #6.5)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574334687l/48550232._SX50_.jpg|73871959] (#6.5 2020).

The main characters of the series make only cameo appearances in the novellas. Second Desk Diana Taverner is the only one of the regulars in this case, which continues the story of John Bachelor and Hanna Weiss, who were introduced in The List.

I'm keeping a record here of most of the plot as I'll need a refresher when I get to the later novels and novellas of the series. So I've blocked this section as:

Spoiler

John Bachelor is a milkman, a semi-retired spy who is now caretaker to other retired members of the security service. Solomon Dortmund, one of Bachelor's retirees, spots what he believes is a "drop", a handoff of material between agents, at his regular café. Dortmund reports the incident to Bachelor who enlists a friend at Regent's Park head office to identify the two apparent agents. They have unwittingly stumbled onto Hanna Weiss passing along papers to her German BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst, German: Federal Intelligence Service) contact.

Weiss is thought to be MI5's double agent (i.e. BND's agent who is actually working for MI5), but may in fact be a triple agent (she really is still working for the BND). The BND take steps to discredit both Solomon Dortmund (with fatal consequences) and Bachelor's inside man Lech Wicinski, whereupon Diana Taverner consigns the latter to Slough House, MI5's dead-end post for disgraced agents, where he apparently will appear in the next novel of the series #6 [b:Joe Country|38751779|Joe Country (Slough House #6)|Mick Herron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549054031l/38751779._SY75_.jpg|60343291] (2018).

Meanwhile, John Bachelor is homeless due to past mistakes, and takes shelter in the apartment of Solomon Dortmund, where we will later find him in The Catch.

The narration by the series regular reader [a:Gerard Doyle|12434|Gerard Doyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1584953555p2/12434.jpg] was excellent as always.

kris_mccracken's review against another edition

3.0

Decent little novella that has encouraged me to look out for more of Mick Herron's work. Quick tip though, don't do what I've done and start with this! It's a bridging work between old and new, and inhabits a World that I suspect will feel much richer if one had a better sense of our characters.