362 pages.
Rating...5⭐s
You can buy London Rules...here You can find out more about Mick Herron...here
At Regent's Park, the Intelligence Service HQ, its new chief Claude Whelan is learning the job the hard way.
Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.
Over at Slough House, the last stop for washed up spies, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - making a bad situation much, much worse.
I read this book as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. See here for details.This weeks prompt was a book with a sticker on the front.
London Rules is the 5th of a series of 8 (so far) novels set in slough house (see photo)
Slough house is basically a holding pen for washed up has beens or the never will be of MI5 who, for one reason or another, can't be sacked but the aim of Slough house is to drive them to quit by making their lives one of mind numbing tedium and zero respect. They are known collectively as the Slow Horses. They are made up of alcoholics, coke addicts, gamblers, grief stricken loners, a disgraced relative of a former famous agent, an agent who is possibly having a mental breakdown and a computer nerd who is, well... just a bit of a dick.
The man is charge is an ageing, slovenly, farting, smoking, drinking, viscous tongued bully. named Jackson Lamb. And he is our hero! I love the character of Jackson Lamb. He is vastly experienced in the spy world, he's been there, done that, shot the guy in the head and got the T shirt and he literally knows where all the bodies are buried. He spews vitriol onto his charges and verbally abuses them at every opportunity. However, when someone goes after his band of waifs and strays he springs into action, defending them like a mother lioness ( all the while still being a horrible person.)
An deadly terrorist attack occurs and suspicion of a leak from Slough House that instigated the attack ensures that Lambs nemesis, MI5 big wig Lady Di Taverner, swoops in to attempt to shut down the Slow Horses and take over first chair of MI5.
All the while the PM is battling to save his job from a Farrage-a-like carpet bagger of a back-bencher who has press support. (Sound familiar?) The PM enlists Claude Whelan the grey, low profile head of MI5 to help. When I picture Claude Whelan in my head I keep getting John Major š¤·
And we are off and running...
I must admit I love the writing of Mick Herron. The plots are fascinating, the political intrigue and quest for power is up there with I Claudius and The Godfather. However the best part is that he intertwines serious spy narratives with an outrageous blend of acerbic, sarcastic and cynical humour. I work in heavy industry on the shop floor and this type of "banter" has been my life for 35 years and he does it so well. Think Jack Dee and Al Murray as low level agents. It is a heady mix that just hits the sweet spot with a sledgehammer,
Henry Ford once said "If you think you can or if you think you can't your'e probably right." A Mick Herron is exactly that, If you read it as a houmourus book youre 100% right and if you read it as a serious spy thriller again you are 100% right. To be 200% right, now that is a seriously good author. My only regret is that I have read books 1 and now book 5, I just wish I had read them all in in order.
Circles were traditionally vicious. Catherine suspected other shapes had teeth too, but better PR.
"you're all crazy," Flyte said.
"we prefer the term"Alternatively sane".”
State education was for chemists and the grubbier sort of poet.
The biggest threat Parliament faces is democracy. It's been a necessary evil for centuries, and for the most part we've been able to use it to our advantage. But one fucking referendum later and it's like someone gave a loaded gun to a drunk toddler
- If You Liked This Then You May Like...
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarreBerlin Game by Len Deighton
Blott On The Landscape by Tom Sharpe
NB it is very difficult to recommend books similar in style to Mick Herron's, because I truly believe he is a one off. So I have tried to deconstruct his appeal. The first two recs are out and out classic spy thrillers with all the dark intrigue of Herron but lacking in his trademark wit.
While the last rec maybe a little out of left field but is an hilarious expose of the political manoeuvrings ruling class similar to Whelan/Lady Di but without Herron's jeopardy of the world of the spy catchers.
Mick Herron is the #1 bestselling and award-winning novelist and short story writer, best known for his Slough House thrillers. The series has been adapted into an Apple TV series, Slow Horses, starring Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb.
Raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, Herron studied English Literature at Oxford, where he continues to live. After some years writing poetry, he turned to fiction, and – despite a daily commute into London, where he worked as a sub editor – found time to write about 350 words a day. His first novel, Down Cemetery Road, was published in 2003. This was the start of Herron’s ZoĆ« Boehm series, set in Oxford and featuring detective ZoĆ« Boehm and civilian Sarah Tucker. The other books in the series are The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers, set in his native Newcastle. During the same period he wrote a number of short stories, many of which appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
In 2008, inspired by world events, Mick began writing the Slough House series, featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. The first novel, Slow Horses, was published in 2010. Some years later, it was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as one of “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time”.
The Slough House thrillers have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in twenty-five languages. He is also the author of the Zoƫ Boehm series, soon to be adapted into a major TV series starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. Mick is also the author of the highly acclaimed standalone novels Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours.
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