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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I enjoy this series enough to keep reading it, but the casual misogyny and outdated views that I think we're supposed to believe come from the characters are sometimes a bit much. It doesn't feel like they're coming from the characters, but permeate the entire book. The characters are more archetype than fully realized people. The books are set in pretty much present day, but there's something about them that seems dated.
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
October 3, 2024 Update This is a special update going out to GR Friends Berengaria and our own Rodster Sportyrod. I simply couldn't resist screen-grabbing this from last night's episode of Slow Horses Season 4 based on Spook Street.
Slow Horse Roddy Ho with a characteristic pose and expression.
August 16, 2024 Update Full official trailer for Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book 4 Spook Street is now up as of a few days ago and can be seen on YouTube here. The fragments of music heard sound like bits from Gimme Danger, Little Stranger by Iggy and the Stooges, but it doesn't sound like the original.
December 27, 2023 Update The teaser trailer for Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book 4 Spook Street premiered at the end of the Season 3 Finale today and can also now be seen on YouTube here.
June 1, 2022 Update Apple TV+ series 'Slow Horses' renewed for Seasons 3 and 4, to be based on Books 3 'Real Tigers' and 4 'Spook Street'. Story at Variety.
Slow Horses Under Attack
Review of the Recorded Books audiobook edition (February 21, 2017) narrated by [a:Gerard Doyle|12434|Gerard Doyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1584953555p2/12434.jpg] released two weeks after the Soho Crime hardcover (February 7, 2017)
Actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House. in a characteristic pose. Image sourced from The Times UK.
Events move fast in the Slough House / Slow Horses universe and I'm glad to be reading and/or listening to the books in fairly quick order right now due to being incentivized after seeing Season 1 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book One. There are many ongoing subplots and character arcs which must have been difficult to keep track of if you were reading them a year or more apart as they were originally released.
As a refresher, the agents of Slough House, aka the "Slow Horses," are a group from the MI5 British Security Service who for various reasons (e.g. bungled field assignments, alcoholism, poor social skills, etc.) have been shunted aside from head office or field operations and sent to work at their off-site building, a pre-retirement resting stop of paper pushing & electronic surveillance to keep them out of the way of their supposed betters. At Slough House, they are presided over by their chief, the slovenly, flatulent Jackson Lamb. Lamb was once a field operative and still has an instinctive sense for the wiles of bureaucracy and espionage, especially in the areas of incompetence and betrayal.
In Spook Street, the 4th novel in the series, we find that some previous characters have moved on, First Desk Ingrid Tearney has been shunted aside and been replaced by Claude Whelan, previous 'Head Dog' Nick Duffy has been replaced by Emma Flyte, Jackson Lamb's Slough House assistant Catherine Standish has retired and her replacement is Moira Tregorian. Several new Slow Horses have joined the crew and we will continue to discover that the life expectancy at Slough House is almost as perilous as that of being a 'Joe' in the field.
The novel starts off with two quick shocks, a terrorist bombing attack on the general public and an apparent assassination attempt on Slough House agent River Cartwright's grandfather, the long retired First Desk David Cartwright, aka the O.B., who is showing signs of dementia. In the aftermath, a dead body in the elder Cartwright's home is identified by Jackson Lamb as being that of River Cartwright. We soon discover that Lamb is playing a deception game and that River has instead brought the O.B. to Catherine Standish for safekeeping while he follows a lead to France to discover the source behind the attacks.
Too much further information would be a spoiler, but the revelations and further shocks are quick to follow as River Cartwright discovers family secrets that have been kept from him, while Jackson Lamb knows more than he has previously revealed about the past of the Cartwright family. Before the end, Slough House itself comes under direct attack and not all of the Slow Horses will survive.
The narration by now series regular Gerard Doyle (several of the earlier books have 1st edition audiobooks voiced by other narrators) was excellent as always, especially in his 'Jackson Lamb' voice.
Trivia and Links
There is a Slough House glossary at SpyWrite.com (with some spoilers obviously, but the most major spoilers are hidden behind white script which you have to mouse over in order to read) which is extremely useful if you are trying to follow all of the characters and story arcs of the series and looking for definitions to the words and expressions of author Mick Herron's invented spy terminology.
Spook Street could be the basis for a future Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses (2022 - ?), if the show is renewed after Season 2. You can watch the Season 2 trailer (based on Book 2 "Dead Lions") on YouTube here. You can watch the Season 1 trailer (based on Book 1 "Slow Horses") on YouTube here.
Slow Horse Roddy Ho with a characteristic pose and expression.
August 16, 2024 Update Full official trailer for Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book 4 Spook Street is now up as of a few days ago and can be seen on YouTube here. The fragments of music heard sound like bits from Gimme Danger, Little Stranger by Iggy and the Stooges, but it doesn't sound like the original.
December 27, 2023 Update The teaser trailer for Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book 4 Spook Street premiered at the end of the Season 3 Finale today and can also now be seen on YouTube here.
June 1, 2022 Update Apple TV+ series 'Slow Horses' renewed for Seasons 3 and 4, to be based on Books 3 'Real Tigers' and 4 'Spook Street'. Story at Variety.
Slow Horses Under Attack
Review of the Recorded Books audiobook edition (February 21, 2017) narrated by [a:Gerard Doyle|12434|Gerard Doyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1584953555p2/12434.jpg] released two weeks after the Soho Crime hardcover (February 7, 2017)
"That's the measure of our success, Claude. That the country still leads a normal life, even while we bury the dead."
"I'm not sure Marketing'll approve that as a slogan." - conversation between Second Desk Diana Taverner and First Desk Claude Whelan.
"Do you all act dumb all the time? Or is it not an act?"
"We take it in turns," said Louisa. - conversation between new 'Head Dog' Emma Flyte and Slough House's Louisa Guy.
Actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House. in a characteristic pose. Image sourced from The Times UK.
Events move fast in the Slough House / Slow Horses universe and I'm glad to be reading and/or listening to the books in fairly quick order right now due to being incentivized after seeing Season 1 of the Apple TV+ series based on Book One. There are many ongoing subplots and character arcs which must have been difficult to keep track of if you were reading them a year or more apart as they were originally released.
As a refresher, the agents of Slough House, aka the "Slow Horses," are a group from the MI5 British Security Service who for various reasons (e.g. bungled field assignments, alcoholism, poor social skills, etc.) have been shunted aside from head office or field operations and sent to work at their off-site building, a pre-retirement resting stop of paper pushing & electronic surveillance to keep them out of the way of their supposed betters. At Slough House, they are presided over by their chief, the slovenly, flatulent Jackson Lamb. Lamb was once a field operative and still has an instinctive sense for the wiles of bureaucracy and espionage, especially in the areas of incompetence and betrayal.
In Spook Street, the 4th novel in the series, we find that some previous characters have moved on, First Desk Ingrid Tearney has been shunted aside and been replaced by Claude Whelan, previous 'Head Dog' Nick Duffy has been replaced by Emma Flyte, Jackson Lamb's Slough House assistant Catherine Standish has retired and her replacement is Moira Tregorian. Several new Slow Horses have joined the crew and we will continue to discover that the life expectancy at Slough House is almost as perilous as that of being a 'Joe' in the field.
The novel starts off with two quick shocks, a terrorist bombing attack on the general public and an apparent assassination attempt on Slough House agent River Cartwright's grandfather, the long retired First Desk David Cartwright, aka the O.B., who is showing signs of dementia. In the aftermath, a dead body in the elder Cartwright's home is identified by Jackson Lamb as being that of River Cartwright. We soon discover that Lamb is playing a deception game and that River has instead brought the O.B. to Catherine Standish for safekeeping while he follows a lead to France to discover the source behind the attacks.
Too much further information would be a spoiler, but the revelations and further shocks are quick to follow as River Cartwright discovers family secrets that have been kept from him, while Jackson Lamb knows more than he has previously revealed about the past of the Cartwright family. Before the end, Slough House itself comes under direct attack and not all of the Slow Horses will survive.
The narration by now series regular Gerard Doyle (several of the earlier books have 1st edition audiobooks voiced by other narrators) was excellent as always, especially in his 'Jackson Lamb' voice.
Trivia and Links
There is a Slough House glossary at SpyWrite.com (with some spoilers obviously, but the most major spoilers are hidden behind white script which you have to mouse over in order to read) which is extremely useful if you are trying to follow all of the characters and story arcs of the series and looking for definitions to the words and expressions of author Mick Herron's invented spy terminology.
Spook Street could be the basis for a future Season 4 of the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses (2022 - ?), if the show is renewed after Season 2. You can watch the Season 2 trailer (based on Book 2 "Dead Lions") on YouTube here. You can watch the Season 1 trailer (based on Book 1 "Slow Horses") on YouTube here.
Another great entry in the series. Sped right through it and will head on to the next book.
3 1/2 stars actually Man, ol' Mick can wind 'em up. Reading this is a compulsive follow up to series 3 of Slow Horses on Amazon. Had to know what season 4 had in store. What I can say is the show is VERY faithful to the source material. So reading the books is easy to visualize. This isn't high art but its great light reading and storytelling. Nice to have this series around for inbetween other books.
medium-paced