Winning awards as well, he also gained the CWA Gold Dagger for his first effort, allowing him to garner critical acclaim as well as commercial. With series such as his ever popular ‘Slough House’ franchise, he’s managed to establish a name for himself through well researched and precise genre fiction. Knowing the area well, he’s able to bring the art-form forwards, creating his own unique take in the process.

Slough House Series by Mick Herron - Goodreads Slough House Series by Mick Herron - Goodreads

Roddy Ho is the computer whiz, uber-geek and the butt of everyone’s jokes, not just Lamb’s. He’s ineffectual, arrogant and completely unaware of his failings. Hess often complained about the money that he was paid for his years of service and it seems that he had been finding a way to supplement his income. When a second, secret bank account of his is uncovered, it reveals the possibility that he may have been a double agent. If he was, then this happened on Bachelor’s watch and now his future is in doubt. When Diana Taverner threatens him from everything from a prison sentence, to cancelling his pension, and even Slough House doesn’t look like an option, Bachelor knows he has to clean up the mess that Taverner is clear that he has created. A video circulates on the internet where terrorists claim to behead a boy live. The “slow horses” take the investigation into their hands unofficially. The book gets fascinating as it shows the struggle of this dysfunctional team trying to execute the mission successfully.What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a retirement home for those who know too many secrets but don’t remember they’re secret? Or does someone take care of the senile spy for good? Living and working, he is always kept busy working on his next novel, or building his next franchise, as his short stories continue to get published in the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine publication. Creating a brand for himself, he’s managed to set his material apart from the rest in what is already a fairly crowded genre. as every office worker knows, it’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you that kills you.” Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from o...

The List (Slough House Novella) by Mick Herron | eBook

Catherine Standish is Lamb’s assistant, and a recovering alcoholic. She used to assist Charles Partner, who was First Desk at Regents Park until his suicide – something it’s rumoured Lamb might have had a hand in arranging. Partner had been selling secrets to the Russians. And on we go……..is there an active spy ring, is there a network of sleepers, did whoever set this up want it so obviously discovered, it would cast doubt on all they had believed from Hess in the past? Was Hess playing the Germans to make believe he had a ring in place, so he could extort funds for his retirement – just a scam in effect? Or was it just meant to look like a scam, to ensure the actual sleeper was in place and ignored?I made the choice of reading one book out of sequence because it was convenient. Mistake! Try to read the series as written It was extraordinary, thought Coe, how much a badly dressed shoeless fat man could look like a crocodile. From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels!