'Joe Country', 'Slough House' and 'Bad Actors' by Mick Herron
6 June 2024
Having really enjoyed the first five of Mick Herron’s Slough House series of spy novels (all reviewed here between November 2023 and May 2024) I've now finished the final three books in the series. 'Joe Country' is a dark, violent tale that takes the slow horses to snowy Pembrokeshire (which, as everyone keeps pedantically pointing out, is in Wales). 'Slough House' is a brilliantly plotted story with a devastating sting in the tail that completely surprised me, but with hindsight was hinted at throughout the book. The final novel 'Bad Actors' is the most ambitious, with an initially confusing jump forward in time from the previous book very satisfyingly resolved by a hilarious farcical flashback set-piece. And Mick Herron is both bold enough to leave many of the key characters out of the climax to the series and indulgent enough to add a postscript chapter to bring the gang back together.
Labels: Books
posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:40 pm
1 Comments:
Mick Herron's Slow Horses in the Slough House anti-Bond series is brilliant on screen and paper and it is great news to see a splendid new author challenging the Fleming, Cornwell and Deighton claims to be emperor of the espionage fiction throne. No doubt British Intelligence will be annoyed that such an anti-Bond production can succeed as, of course, was the case with Harry Palmer in the films based on Len Deighton's novels.
Another not dissimilar anti-Bond film production might be on its way based on TheBurlingtonFiles series of spy novels but unlike the Slough House series and Len Deighton's works it is more fact based than fiction. Interestingly, the protagonist in TheBurlingtonFiles has been likened to a posh Harry Palmer with a dry sense of humour akin to that of Jackson Lamb.
The first thriller in TheBurlingtonFiles series was called "Beyond Enkription". It was released in 2014. The remaining five volumes in the series have been stalled for "legal and security" reasons. Nevertheless, Beyond Enkription is an intriguing unadulterated stand-alone thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
Beyond Enkription has been heralded by one US critic as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Little wonder, unlike Slow Horses, Beyond Enkription is mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.
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