Take a photo of a barcode or cover
charles__ 's review for:
Spook Street
by Mick Herron
The Slow Horses get embroiled in a buried MI5 sponsored terrorist organization.
HMS President on the Thames, where Frank steals Darth Vader's famous line.**
My audio edition was about 10 1/2 hours long. A dead tree copy would be about 320 pages. The original UK copyright was 2017.
Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He has about 20-books published, in two series and standalone. This is the fourth book in his Slough House series. This was the fourth book I’ve read by the author. The previous being the third book in the series Real Tigers (my review).
Its strongly recommended that the previous books in the series be read before this one. Otherwise, the important Cartwright plotline will not be easily understood.
In this story a MI5 sponsored 3rd party organization executes a terrorist act. MI5’s participation was well-hidden within the bureaucracy for decades and forgotten. The terrorists attempt to tidy-up the connection draws in the Slow Horses through the person of Cartwright’s grandfather an ex-Service legend. That the grandfather has since lapsed into dementia and has himself forgotten much of the past adds to the mystery.
This book puts a new twist on what threatened to become tired themes for me. Although, this fourth book still adheres to those broader themes.
Slough House is punishment. Its where MI5 banishes unwanted or inconvenient employees to make them go away. Folks of all MI5 stripes are sent to Slough House to quit. Needless to say an interesting cast of characters eddies-up into Slough House. There are folks that are: screw-ups, head cases, and also those who came in second in the internecine internal struggles of The Service. That some folks are just too stubborn to quit is a major theme of the series. Almost all of them want to redeem themselves to The Service and become real operatives again. (They don't get it.) The Slow Horses are in effect, Nominal Heroes. Although, they generally rise to meet the story’s conflict and outperform their apparatchik peers at MI5.
The principal characters at Slough House are: the mean-spirited, old warhorse, Jackson Lamb; the young scion of a MI5 service family River Cartwright; and Catherine Standish, the ex-alcoholic, Miss Moneypenny of the previous MI5 bureaucratic regime. Herron also rotates around the other Slow Horses (Slough House exiles) to mix things up. I like that Herron is not afraid to kill-off characters. Although, this gives him an opportunity to rotate in a new Slow Horse to become fodder for the series.
The upper echelons of MI5 are always the antagonists, in addition to the story’s antagonist du jour. They’re also always shown to be morally bankrupt. Their infighting is a hindrance to the security of the nation. Its also not petty, as it typically involves some fatalities.
Every story in the series starts with two (2) separately starting plot lines that converge at the end. One of them is invariably an internal MI5 “op” (historical or current) or an internal MI5 or government power struggle. MI5 is a bureaucratic ‘snake pit’. The other plotline is typically, a: criminal, terrorist, or nation state threat to British security. The Slow Horses invariable get sucked into the conflict. Lamb makes the most of his collection of broken agents to preserve the nation, keep his charges as safe as possible, and maintain his splendid isolated, position in the MI5 organization.
The books in the series are well written. It’s a very character driven series with many POVs. Fortunately after listening to four books, I’ve become accustomed to the cutting back and forth between the numerous POVs. It used to be very confusing when I first started listening. An interesting peculiarity, is that Lamb is written in the 3rd person, while his primary minions like Carwright, and Standaish are in the 1st person. At the end of each book, there is a 3rd person omniscient POV monologue written from Slough House’s perspective. I’m not sure whether I like it or not? It makes the building appear haunted, while there is no supernatural element to the stories at all.
The writing is also amusing. The humor is very British. Lamb's dialog is particularly pithy and off-colour.
The story was intelligent, and as mentioned frequently amusing. The intentionally, cruel, manipulating and revolting Lamb in contrast to the bureaucratically polished, cruel, manipulating, corporate-types at MI5’s London HQ is always good for a chuckle. The spy craft was good. The action for this story took place completely in London. London geography was OK, if a bit dated. There was also a cross-channel hop on the Eurostar by Cartwright to do a walkabout in what I think was somewhere in Anjou in France. The story also took place over a very short period of time for Herron, about 48 hours.
This was yet another story of Herron’s Slow Horses in conflict with MI5. This fourth book was different from previous stories in the series. The conflict didn’t originate from present day MI5 bureaucratic infighting. It was a buried, Cartwright secret that perversely came to life as a terrorist act. Although MI5 responded characteristically to rebury the problem. This was interesting enough. This twist revived my interest in the series.
** HMS President is no longer at Victoria Embankment. She was moved sometime in 2016.
HMS President on the Thames, where Frank steals Darth Vader's famous line.**
My audio edition was about 10 1/2 hours long. A dead tree copy would be about 320 pages. The original UK copyright was 2017.
Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He has about 20-books published, in two series and standalone. This is the fourth book in his Slough House series. This was the fourth book I’ve read by the author. The previous being the third book in the series Real Tigers (my review).
Its strongly recommended that the previous books in the series be read before this one. Otherwise, the important Cartwright plotline will not be easily understood.
In this story a MI5 sponsored 3rd party organization executes a terrorist act. MI5’s participation was well-hidden within the bureaucracy for decades and forgotten. The terrorists attempt to tidy-up the connection draws in the Slow Horses through the person of Cartwright’s grandfather an ex-Service legend. That the grandfather has since lapsed into dementia and has himself forgotten much of the past adds to the mystery.
This book puts a new twist on what threatened to become tired themes for me. Although, this fourth book still adheres to those broader themes.
Slough House is punishment. Its where MI5 banishes unwanted or inconvenient employees to make them go away. Folks of all MI5 stripes are sent to Slough House to quit. Needless to say an interesting cast of characters eddies-up into Slough House. There are folks that are: screw-ups, head cases, and also those who came in second in the internecine internal struggles of The Service. That some folks are just too stubborn to quit is a major theme of the series. Almost all of them want to redeem themselves to The Service and become real operatives again. (They don't get it.) The Slow Horses are in effect, Nominal Heroes. Although, they generally rise to meet the story’s conflict and outperform their apparatchik peers at MI5.
The principal characters at Slough House are: the mean-spirited, old warhorse, Jackson Lamb; the young scion of a MI5 service family River Cartwright; and Catherine Standish, the ex-alcoholic, Miss Moneypenny of the previous MI5 bureaucratic regime. Herron also rotates around the other Slow Horses (Slough House exiles) to mix things up. I like that Herron is not afraid to kill-off characters.
Spoiler
In this book, Markus a gambling addicted, hard man who has been a significant character for two books buys it. I’ll miss him.The upper echelons of MI5 are always the antagonists, in addition to the story’s antagonist du jour. They’re also always shown to be morally bankrupt. Their infighting is a hindrance to the security of the nation. Its also not petty, as it typically involves some fatalities.
Every story in the series starts with two (2) separately starting plot lines that converge at the end. One of them is invariably an internal MI5 “op” (historical or current) or an internal MI5 or government power struggle. MI5 is a bureaucratic ‘snake pit’. The other plotline is typically, a: criminal, terrorist, or nation state threat to British security. The Slow Horses invariable get sucked into the conflict. Lamb makes the most of his collection of broken agents to preserve the nation, keep his charges as safe as possible, and maintain his splendid isolated, position in the MI5 organization.
The books in the series are well written. It’s a very character driven series with many POVs. Fortunately after listening to four books, I’ve become accustomed to the cutting back and forth between the numerous POVs. It used to be very confusing when I first started listening. An interesting peculiarity, is that Lamb is written in the 3rd person, while his primary minions like Carwright, and Standaish are in the 1st person. At the end of each book, there is a 3rd person omniscient POV monologue written from Slough House’s perspective. I’m not sure whether I like it or not? It makes the building appear haunted, while there is no supernatural element to the stories at all.
The writing is also amusing. The humor is very British. Lamb's dialog is particularly pithy and off-colour.
The story was intelligent, and as mentioned frequently amusing. The intentionally, cruel, manipulating and revolting Lamb in contrast to the bureaucratically polished, cruel, manipulating, corporate-types at MI5’s London HQ is always good for a chuckle. The spy craft was good. The action for this story took place completely in London. London geography was OK, if a bit dated. There was also a cross-channel hop on the Eurostar by Cartwright to do a walkabout in what I think was somewhere in Anjou in France. The story also took place over a very short period of time for Herron, about 48 hours.
This was yet another story of Herron’s Slow Horses in conflict with MI5. This fourth book was different from previous stories in the series. The conflict didn’t originate from present day MI5 bureaucratic infighting. It was a buried, Cartwright secret that perversely came to life as a terrorist act. Although MI5 responded characteristically to rebury the problem. This was interesting enough. This twist revived my interest in the series.
** HMS President is no longer at Victoria Embankment. She was moved sometime in 2016.