Table Of Content
The Secret Hours is set around the time of or after Bad Actors but includes a section set well before the series begins. Herron’s is a new and very welcome flavor of spy fiction, grouchy and funny, in keeping with our muddled times. Let the TV series lure you up the grubby back stairs of Slough House, and you’ll have seven (soon to be eight) crackerjack novels to keep you going until Season 2. David discusses the "cicada" theory of Russian sleeper agents embedded in British society, which MI5 dismissed as a hoax after no sleepers were found and discovered that the programme's alleged mastermind, Alexander Popov, did not exist. He tells River that Bough went AWOL in East Berlin and was assumed to have defected, but returned drunk. Bough claimed to have been kidnapped and tortured by Popov, who force-fed him brandy, but was fired.
Early life
David dismisses River's theory that Bough's death was the work of the FSB or related to a conspiracy, but warns River to be careful. Hassan's kidnappers – Moe, Larry, Curly and Zeppo – hold him hostage in a London terrace basement, with it transpiring that Simmonds is behind the kidnapping. River, having copied the contents of Hobden's USB drive before delivering it to Regent's Park, realises it contains no information and manipulates a rival, James "Spider" Webb, into confirming the same. Standish begins having flashbacks to the death of a former colleague of hers and Lamb's, Charles Partner.
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His many novels are immersed in the world of spies which he sees as a means to an end. While his day job and long commute meant he had very little time to pen his novels, it was that commute that birthed the spy location for his most popular work. Also see Mick Herron’s standalone novels, Nobody Walks and This Is What Happened? Nobody Walks is even set in the same espionage world as a retired spy digs in to his son’s mysterious death. Part of the popularity of the series lies in the fact these books simply make you feel good. Everyone enjoys an underdog story of course, but on top of that, the novels are about friendships forged from the common bond of disappointment but tested in life-and-death situations.
Dead Lions – 2013
It’s not universally true – no-one likes the character Roddy Ho, for example – but River Cartwright and Catherine Standish form a bond, as do Louisa Guy and Min Harper, and Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge. In the dilapidated offices of Slough House, these files spooks spend their time on various pointless tasks, designed to break their will and bring about their resignations, avoiding the hassle, expense and bad publicity of employment tribunals. One of the first things to appreciate is that each novel is an underdog story – a group of individuals, under-qualified and under-resourced, who have to beat their better-off cousins at The Park to save the day. A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret information. Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon “Solly” Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows he’s witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly for MI5, he sets in motion a train of events that will alter lives.
British Novels About Small Businesses or Entrepreneurs
Moreover, these novels are all about friendships tested in death and life situations and forged from the common bonds of disappointment. Jackson Lamb is the head of Slough House and a former Joe, or field agent in Slough House slang. This might explain his loyalty to his team when they are in peril, and makes his otherwise rude and bullying behaviour towards them forgivable.
To them, the Cold War looks a lot like the good old days, filled with purpose, cunning, and derring-do. River in particular, whose grandfather’s status as an espionage legend is the only thing that kept him from getting the sack, idolizes those days. From boyhood, he sat at his grandfather’s feet listening to stories about British spies employing tradecraft to outwit their Soviet counterparts.
Storyline
The first series follows the action of book one, and it stars British acting greats Gary Oldman (as Jackson Lamb) and Kristin Scott Thomas (as Diana Taverner). A new populist movement is taking hold on London's streets, and the old order is selling everything off to the highest bidder – so what happens to those who are deemed “surplus”? Jackson Lamb and the other slow horses will find themselves in a fight for their lives. River Cartwright finds himself grappling with these worries when his grandfather David, a Cold War-era operative, starts forgetting to wear pants. At the same time, River finds himself occupied with the recent bombing of a busy shopping center.
Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge are the odd couple, though they’re not even a couple. She was in comms at The Park before she laid out a co-worker, and also has addiction issues. He used to break down doors and carry a gun before his gambling problems compromised him.
Slough House, Book 8 Bad Actors
Given that the most recent novel came out in May 2022 and the TV series has already been renewed for a second series, it's very likely there will be more. Brexit has taken its toll, members are dying in strange circumstances, and the office has been wiped from official records. One such slow horse is River Cartwright who could not have been more frustrated at his failure and having to transcribe tedious cell phone conversations. Mick Herron combined his idea with that of an old and odd-looking building he used to walk past while he was on his daily commute. The building had a dingy black door slapped between a dodgy convenience store and a bizarre-looking restaurant. They would instead place them somewhere where they would be out of the way of the real spies and could not bother them as they did their work.
Meanwhile, in Regent’s Park, Diana Taverner’s tenure as First Desk is running into difficulties. If she’s going to make the Service fit for purpose, she might have to make deals with a familiar old devil.
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River bribes a taxi driver in Stroud, who reveals he drove Chernitsky to an airfield and flying club in Upshott, but was instructed to lie about it and call a number should people come looking. Lamb meets with Taverner and convinces her to fund a fake ID and cover package for River, who he then meets and instructs to investigate the airfield and its owner, Duncan Tropper. Taverner is dealing with now-Home Secretary Peter Judd regarding a large upcoming anti-capitalist protest in London.
Lamb and his team flee the property before the "Dogs" (MI5 security personnel) arrive, knowing that since the operation has not gone to plan that Slough House will be blamed. River is able to rescue Roddy before he can be taken into custody, but Min and Louisa are unable to stop their colleague Struan Loy from being taken from his home by operatives. Taverner calls Standish several times to flip her allegiance, alleging that Lamb was involved with Partner's death, but Standish remains loyal to Lamb when he comes to extract her. Leaving her house the two are apprehended by James Webb and head of security Nick Duffy, who force them into a car after searching Lamb. En route to Regent's Park, Standish is able to free herself and Lamb after pulling a Glock 17 from her handbag, the weapon having been taken from Moody and placed there by Lamb. Aged spy Dieter Hess is dead, and his death has revealed he had a secret second bank account.
To appreciate them fully requires an understanding of what they have gone through before. Dander’s character arc, for example, can only really be seen through the prism of her developing friendship with Longridge. Beyond the individual storylines exist a set of meta-plots, developing over the series as a whole, which again must be read in order. River Cartwright was sent to Slough House after a training exercise left King’s Cross crashed. He’s a serious young man, and of all the slow horses the most upset at his demotion. He was raised by his grandfather, David, a service legend, and grew up hearing stories of his time in the service.
However, the setting of Slough House is inspired by a very real part of London. Although not part of the Slough House series, Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours use some of the same characters and provide some character backstory. In story terms, Reconstruction is set before Slow Horses, whereas Nobody Walks comes after The List and before Spook Street.
That all changes when a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the internet. The slow horses see connections between the case and some of what they've been observing, making it a perfect opportunity to try and redeem themselves. As they work on their plan to rescue their colleague, they find a huge web of intrigue that includes the highest authorities working in the Security Services and a group of private mercenaries. But then they are called into action when one of them is taken by a former soldier hell-bent on vengeance. To rescue their colleague they will need to break into Regent Park with its formidable defenses to steal some valuable intel. Part of the appeal of these novels has to be the fact that they incorporate an underdog story.
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