Slough House by Mick Herron

 

This is the seventh book in the Jackson Lamb series. It is a dark story and, having seen the excellent docu-drama series, The Salisbury Poisonings, I was quite prepared to accept and be intrigued by the fictional goings-on contained therein. 

Two things are happening to the slow horses: they are being used as target practice for Lady Di’s trainee spooks from Regent’s Park but as well a more sinister element has crept in and the admittedly superior (but don’t tell him) computing talents of Roddy Ho are put into service in an attempt to find out just what is going on.

River Cartwright, still recovering from the loss of his grandfather, makes a shock discovery which puts him in grave danger; Catherine, Louisa, Shirley and Lech are all as interesting as ever and the toad-ish Jackson Lamb is his usual repulsive, politically incorrect self. Peter Judd, the fictional Boris Johnson wannabe, is once again reading Lady Di like a book and vice versa.

The baddies are bad, the goodies are complicated and the repartee is wonderfully witty. The story ends with a cliff hanger which will have Mick Herron’s devotees wondering what on earth they are going to do with themselves until book number eight comes along.

A superb, utterly satisfying spy novel from The Master. 5 out of 5.

Published by John Murray