The Quiet American by Graham Greene

 

208 pages

Our Rating 5 ⭐s

You can buy The Quiet American...Here

You can find out more about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

Into the intrigue and violence of 1950s Saigon comes CIA agent Alden Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'.

As Pyle's naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as Fowler intervenes he wonders why: for the greater good, or something altogether more complicated?

• Our Review...

This is the third Graham Greene that I have read, after Brighton Rock and The Power And The Glory, and it is once again excellent.

Set in Vietnam in 1952 when the Vietnamese forces were fighting the French colonial power before they went on to defeat the USA. The tale focuses on three people. 

The old cynical English journalist Fowler, whose weapons of choice is a witty mind and a cruel tongue

His young local lover Phuong

An a newcomer to Indo-China. Pyle a young brash American. He is the human equivalent of a Labrador puppy. All innocent and bouncy but sadly lacking in nuance and decorum. He is working for the USA government in some pseudo industrial cartel/quango.

So the scene is set the males both want to be with Phuong. Phuong just wants a comfortable life. Pyle just turns up and oblivious to everyone else just blunders in  and Fowler is just hanging  on knowing his golden era is long gone but is just hanging on to the vestiges of life and love with Phuong. And so the three leads are obviously analogous to the politics of the time. ie the tug of war between the old powers and the new powers for countries that really just to be left alone. They have no interest in capitalism, communism or colonialism. They just want food, health and to be left alone. 

Greene manages to create a romance book about political intrigue in an historical flash-point that includes a whodunit and all the while it is an anti-war novel. That takes some doing not only that, it is one of the best books that I have ever read. 

In some ways Greene's novels are very diverse. Brighton Rock is about English Gangsters, The Power and the Glory is about the persecution of Catholic priests in Mexico, and the Quiet American is about political interference in Vietnam. However the backdrops may be different the same themes run through all. Morals, introspection, corruption both of the soul and the real world, loss, love and hope. 

The book is 73 years old but unbelievably it is more of the now than ever. I was born in 1967 so 73 years before that would have been 1894. I can't imagine a book written in 1894 being relevant in 1973 as The Quiet American is now. It forewarned of the naive, USA getting itself involved in a draining war over decades, which it had brought on itself by interfering in a different part of the word and a very different culture to itself which it has no idea about. For Vietnam 1955-1975 see Iraq 2003-2011, Afghanistan 2001-2021.

Similarly a film version was made starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser in a classic case of bad timing it was test screened in Sept 2001 but after 9/11 it was shelved for a few years as it was thought to be anti American.

However to focus on the political landscape of the novel would be to do it a disservice. There is so much more in this novel as hopefully the selected quotes will show. It encompasses a huge range of emotions and dilemmas. There are no good guys just guys who do the things they do for different reasons with different outcomes. No black and white just grey and shades.   

He just has an awareness of how emotions link  into small lives that link into bigger actions that develop into political and moral concepts. How everything in life relates to everything else like a circular butterfly effect.

I know others will read Greene and think  meh! 🤷 but he is just on my wavelength. I will read more Greene and look forward to reading his autibiography.

• Selected Quotes...

The Minister had a great respect for Pyle—Pyle had taken a good degree in—well, one of those subjects Americans can take degrees in: perhaps public relations or theatrecraft, perhaps even Far Eastern studies (he had read a lot of books).

Vietnamese Sureté that seemed to smell of urine and injustice.

It’s always the same wherever one goes—it’s not the most powerful rulers who have the happiest populations.’

The canal was full of bodies: I am reminded now of an Irish stew containing too much meat. The bodies overlapped: one head, seal-grey, and anonymous as a convict with a shaven scalp, stuck up out of the water like a buoy. There was no blood: I suppose it had flowed away a long time ago. I have no idea how many there were: they must have been caught in a cross-fire, trying to get back, and I suppose every man of us along the bank was thinking, ‘Two can play at that game.’ I too took my eyes away; we didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply and anonymously death came.

Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that’s why men have invented God—a being capable of understanding.

‘And if you lose Phuong, will you be sensible?’ ‘Oh yes, I hope so. And you?’ ‘I doubt it. I might even run amok. Have you thought about that, Pyle?’ ‘I wish you’d call me Alden, Thomas.’ ‘I’d rather not. Pyle has got—associations.

You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren’t interested.’ ‘They don’t want Communism.’ ‘They want enough rice,’ I said. ‘They don’t want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want.’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Power of the Dog by Don Wilmslow (review here)

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré

Burmese Days by George Orwell 

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron

 

Rating 5⭐s

398 pages

You can buy The Secret Hours...Here

You can find out more about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

Trying to investigate the Secret Service is like trying to get rid of the stink of dead badger. Hard.
For two years the government's Monochrome inquiry has produced nothing more than a series of dead ends.
The Service has kept what happened in the newly reunified Berlin under wraps for decades, and intends for it to stay that way.
But then the OTIS file turns up.
What classified secrets does it hold? And what damage will it create?
All Max Janácek knows is that someone is chasing him through the pitch-dark country lanes and they want him gone.

WE ALL HAVE JOBS TO DO IN THE DAYLIGHT. IT'S WHAT YOU DO IN THE SECRET HOURS THAT REVEALS WHO YOU REALLY ARE.

• Our Review...

Regular visitors to our little site will know Mick Herron is just about our favourite author. Once again he delivers an absolute peach. There are numerous finer points to hit while writing a novel. Plot, character, pacing, delivering the twist, descriptive writing, emotive writing. Some authors are very good at hitting one of these sweet spots and the result is a good book. Although it's very subjective Mick Herron seems to hit them all, in parallel throughout the story, and through every novel. The result is just joyous, effortless reading.

This novel is described as a lean-to novel ie it can be read as a standalone but you get so much more out of it if you are at least familiar with some of the characters from the excellent Slow Horses series. 

The plot is dual timeline. in the present a Government committee is tasked with finding wrong doing by the secret services.  The aim being to find some dirt and so to usher privatisation of certain aspects of national security. However Regents Park (MI5 HQ) isn't playing ball and are not offering up security files. However one file mysteriously falls into their lap. The Otis file from 1990s Berlin and this is where we split into our second timeline. We are introduced to an ensemble of characters, some new, some are clearly referenced in the Slow Horses series. While some of the Slow Horses characters can be spotted immediately, despite having different "working" names, some however emerge gradually.. Who released the file to the inquiry? what was the plan? why is an elderly man in the Devon countryside being hunted?

We come for the plot but stay for the characters. Its difficult to talk about the characters without giving away their alter egos but they are all wonderfully defined. All very real but very vibrant, they stop just at the very spot where they could over develop into caricature. From the 1994 plot the reader can see their origins, how 1994 affects how they developed, think and act in the 2020s. How they became trapped into their personalities. All becomes clear at the final denouement, who the bad guys are, how MI5 work around the restraints of potential privatisation, why Jackson Lamb trusts no-one and why he is un-sackable.

Whenever I read Mick Herron's descriptive prose it sets me in mind of Dickens when he describes the carriage journey over the moors in a tale of two cities. You can feel the not just the environment but also the mood of a venue or situation.

All in all a wonderful addition to a wonderful cannon. One of my biggest regrets in reading is that I didn't read the Slow Horses novels in order (not that it adversely affects my enjoyment of them). Take a tip from me read them in order, and start soon. I honestly think he is better at Spy novels than Fleming, LeCarre, Deighton et al

• Selected Quotes..

So sitting tight and calling the cavalry wasn’t an option, and wouldn’t necessarily have been a sensible move anyway. Sometimes, it was the cavalry you had to watch out for.

its garden wall, as tall as Max himself, was an ancient thing of overgrown rocks, held together by crumbling mortar and ambitious moss.

Always decide who’s to blame before anything goes wrong. It makes the subsequent investigation much simpler.

Unheard objections were like unacknowledged offspring: if no one knows about them, could they really be said to exist?

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Harry's Game by Gerald Seymour

The Constant Gardener by John LeCarre

House of Cards by Michael Dobbs

• About The Author...

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 Zoë Boehm series, set in Oxford and featuring detective Zoë 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 Zoë 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.

London Rules by Mick Herron

362 pages.

Rating...5⭐s

You can buy London Rules...here

You can find out more about Mick Herron...here

• The Blurb...

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.

• Our Review...

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 🤷

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.

• Selected Quotes...

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 LeCarre

Berlin 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. 

• About The Author...

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 Zoë Boehm series, set in Oxford and featuring detective Zoë 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 Zoë 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.

The Conjuror's Apprentice by G.J.Williams

 

347 Pages

You can buy The Conjurors Apprentice...Here

You can follow G.J. Williams...Here

• The Blurb...

Born with the ability to hear thoughts and feelings when there is no sound, Margaretta Morgan’s strange gift sees her apprenticed to Doctor John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist. Using her secret link with the hidden side and her master’s brilliance, Margaretta faces her first murder mystery. In the cruel time of Tudor England, Margaretta and Dee must uncover the evil bound to unravel the court of Bloody Mary.

The year is 1555. This is a time ruled by fear. What secrets await to be pulled from the water?

• Our Review...

Wow, what an unexpected treat. I was asked to review this book by the author after a chance meeting at the Crime Cymru festival. I duly undertook to carry this out. However I must confess it was with no great eagerness. "Oh another book set in the Tudor/Elizabeathen period, I thought to myself." Much like sharks and the Nazis on the discovery channel, it seemed to me it had been done to death. The ground had been saturated by Phillipa Gregory, Hilary Mantel, CJ Sansom not to mention Cate Blanchett, Margot Robbie, Glenda Jackson, Bette Davis, Helen Mirren et al.  I longed to explore the less trodden paths of history. How wrong I was! This book injected new life into the era for me.

There are several reasons why I particularly enjoyed this book.  The motivations and emotions of the characters are well drawn. The driving forces of each person intertwine in a sort of ecology web. Probably more so than most books that I have read. This makes sense when you realise that the author is a doctor of pyschology.

The murder mystery is an enjoyable romp but the wrong un can be spotted very early. The enjoyment though is in seeing how our mis matched heros track him down.

Set in an interesting period when superstition was begining to give way to science. The story blends history with magic. Dr John Dee was indeed a mathmatician, alchemist and scientific advisor.  Folk lore/dark arts are explored in the form of Margarreta, a reader of souls, alongside Dee's interest in tarot and crystals.  I Loved Margaretta's Welsh background. While reading this I was reminded of the English Rugby Union ex Chairman Dudley Wood's quote on the relationship between Wales and England. "The relationship is based on trust and undertstanding, We dont understand them, and they dont trust us. 😁

Truth can be stranger than fiction especially when you come across Dee's connection to James Bond!

I liked that the author put the thoughts and emotions that Margaretta was reading into italics. It served well to seperate these from the rest of the narrative.

What you can really feel in this and other great books set in different time periods is the absolute immersion (love?) of the author in(for) the era. The scenes are beautifully, and sometimes brutally set with enough specific detail to be fascinating but not so much as to be swamped. (see selected quotes.) This is a hard lesson to learn for most historic era  authors.  In addition the setting adds to the human story it does not overwhelm it. 

Once you have read the book, do yourself a favour and read the historical notes at the end and read the author's blog about the setting for the book. 

I could find only one thing that threw me. There is a lot of winking in this book. 😕 I counted 35 winks. Was this practice vastly more widespread back then? This minor concern apart I thought that this was an absolute gem of a book. It rekindled my interest in this era.  Amazing to think this is the author's first. I think I will be spending some time in the future with the good Dr and Margaretta.

• Selected Quotes...

he had proved his formula and now he would apply it again. She would walk in her master’s shadow, using her gifts to go amongst the people, watching, listening, investigating and feeling their thoughts and fears. As a woman she could be invisible and bring back the snippets, talk and evidence which they would compile into a picture in his office. Her ancient gifts of insight would meld with his brilliance of mind and they would uncover the story behind the murder, reveal the killer and their motive.

He softened his face. ‘We share the same curse, Margaretta. We remind our mothers of our fathers…and so their loss.’

Ydy ch’yn siarad cymraeg?’ Do you speak Welsh? Before he could answer, Goodwife Barker snapped from the end of the table, ‘Do not bring that robber’s tongue into this house.’ She raised a finger and pointed at Margaretta. ‘I have warned you. You live by my rules. Do you hear?’

The only women were the market fishwives, gutting the catch with blades which would slice through steel, their fingers bandaged in bloody rags to cover the cuts and nicks. Today, being Friday, was the busiest of their week. Outside the taverns, pot-men threw buckets of filthy water to slew down the pavement where last night’s drinkers had fallen over and emptied their stomachs. It stank of fish-guts, vomit and old beer. Margaretta covered her nose with a linen and pressed on.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like This...

The Last Tudor by Phillipa Gregory

The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

• About The Author...

G.J. Williams is the author of The Conjurer’s Apprentice, the first in the Tudor Rose Murders series.

G.J. Williams is a Welsh woman living in Somerset, England. She is a doctor of psychology and ran an international consulting business for 25 years before putting her love of writing to the forefront of life. She lives between Somerset and London and is often found writing on the train next to a grumpy cat and a cup of tea.

Life is always busy. When she is not writing, she is researching, travelling to historic sites or plotting while sailing the blue seas on her beloved boat.

Her dream is to be chosen by readers who love the books of CJ Sansom, SJ Parris and Rory Clements

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy The Man Who Died Twice...Here

The Blurb...

The second novel in the record-breaking, million-copy bestselling Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman.

It's the following Thursday.

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?

My Review...

Sometimes people in the media turn to writing books as an extra income stream. Well, they already have some notoriety/audience but do not have a writers gift. Richard Osman is not one of those. Mr Osman does have a gift for writing, especially "cosy comedy" His first book "The Thursday Murder Club" sold in its millions and was very entertaining. Although it did use the trick of defeating dead end plot lines by getting ex spy Elizabeth just to phone her ex colleagues to gain some nugget of vital information.

I think TMWDT is even better. Elizabeth's ex husband, still with MI5, steals some diamonds from a crime financier and along with his young, still wet behind the ears handler has to hide out in Coopers Chase retirement home under the watchful eye of our four OAP amateur sleuths and an ever growing cast of helpers. 

The plot is paced perfectly with twists at just the spots. Clever enough to be interesting but not overwhelmingly complex. It will keep you thinking to the end.

The four main characters have very distinct personalities. My favourite is Joyce the retired but a bit dippy ex nurse, whose razor sharp instincts are hidden deep within a vastness of triviality and gossip. Her depth is hidden by her shallowness, and that takes some writing. The growing supporting cast are all colourful and vivid also. I never struggled to remember each one, which I think is a very good sign in an ensemble book.

The partner of comedy is, as always, tragedy, and this is where the author really excels. The segue from jolly hockey-sticks to impending sense of ending and back is handled beautifully. The sections on dementia are heartbreaking as is the aftermath of an OAP struggling with mental health after a brutal mugging. Reading my last two sentences, one could be forgiven for thinking that this is a sad book. It is not, It is joyous and heartwarming. Given the series immense popularity, no doubt there will be a TV show soon.

If you reading this Mr Osman. Give up the day job son! You've cracked it. 😁

Selected Quotes...

“People love to sleep, and yet they are so frightened of death.”

“I am learning that it is important to stop sometimes, and just have a drink and a gossip with friends, even as corpses start to pile up around you. Which they have been doing a lot recently.”

"More women are murdering people these days…If you ignore the context, it is a real sign of progress.”

"Death hangs about her like a fine mist. It is in her hair and in her clothes. Surely everyone around her can tell"

About the Author...

Best known as the creator and co-presenter of the beloved BBC quiz show Pointless, Richard Osman’s career in television and comedy spans more than two decades. Osman studied Politics and Sociology at Trinity College, Cambridge, and began his career in television by producing numerous shows, including Deal or No Deal. Since 2009, he has co-presented Pointless with Alexander Armstrong and made various appearances in programmes such as Have I Got News for You and QI. Osman has also written several quiz and trivia books, including A Pointless History of the World(2016).

In 2020, Osman broke records with his debut novel The Thursday Murder Club – a deliciously humorous detective romp featuring a group of pensioners sleuthing in a sleepy retirement village in Kent. As well as becoming the fastest selling adult crime debut in recorded history, it was widely praised by critics.

 

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy "Slow Horses".....Here

You can follow Mick Herron....Here

The Blurb....

You don't stop being a spook just because you're no longer in the game.

Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent's Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb's misfit crew of highly trained joes don't run ops, they push paper.

But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a 'slow horse'.

A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net. And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch . .

My Review...

Wow, what a book. Le Carre for the modern age. 

I chose this book after hearing Mark Billingham recommend it on a pod cast.

Slough House is where MI5 keep the "slow horses," operatives who have been black balled but for some reason or other but can't be sacked. A departure lounge where MI5 give them mind-numbingly dull tasks until they quit the service of their own accord. Their number include River Cartwright grandson of a once senior MI5 operative.

 

The head of Slough House is Jackson Lamb a disgraced senior veteran, who eventually sort of acts as Cartwright's mentor in a dysfunctional way. 

The Slow Horses have some minor involvement in a watching brief operation that blows up in their faces and the motley crew of the has beens, never was and never will be realise they are being set up. They must work together to save the victim and themselves.

This is a really good book. If Le Carre was a young man now, this is what he would be writing. I read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's people by Le Carre when I was in school and thoroughly enjoyed being in that world with it's own jargon of "moles," "lamplighters" and "the Circus" etc. Herron achieves the same immersion in the world of spies but with an updated vocabulary "dogs, achievers, Joes" and it is still fascinating but I think Herron offers a more modern, even more cynical and sardonic edge than the Master Le Carre. 

When I read this book it reminded me of when Daniel Craig took over as James Bond in Casino Royale. A well worn old favourite genre suddenly had new life blasted right through it. 

The plot is fascinating, all double crosses, back up plans and surprises. The characters are great too. Jackson Lamb is likely to answer a question from the head of the Security Services with a fart. What can I say, He is my type of guy. I saw on twitface that Gary Oldman was to play him in a forthcoming Netflix thingee. Obvs a great actor but Lamb is packing a bit of timber. Had a think and came up with an extensive list! Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Nick Frost, Tom Wilkinson, Hugh Bonnevile.

The top brass are wary of him, the Slow Horses loathe him. In a progressive work environment he would be fired for bullying and not even the passive aggressive kind! A proper grumpy old man of an anti hero. 

If you like spy novels (or even if you don't) I thoroughly recommend this book

Selected Quotes...

"Half of the future is buried in the past. That was the prevailing Service culture. Hence the obsessive sifting of twice-ploughed ground, attempting to understand history before it came round again." 

"If Moscow rules meant watch your back, London rules meant cover your arse. Moscow rules had been written on the streets, but London rules were devised in the corridors of Westminster, and the short version read: someone always pays. Make sure it isn’t you."

"Lamb’s laugh wasn’t a genuine surrender to amusement; more of a temporary derangement. Not a laugh you’d want to hear from anyone holding a stick."

"When she held the compact closer to her face, she could trace damage under the skin; see the lines through which her youth had leaked."

About the Author...

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short-story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of six books in the Slough House series (Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, and the novella The List) and four Oxford mysteries (Down Cemetery Road, The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers), as well as the standalone novels Reconstruction, Nobody Walks, and This Is What Happened. His work has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.