| Title | : | Joe Country (Slough House, #6) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1641290552 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781641290555 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 345 |
| Publication | : | First published June 20, 2019 |
| Awards | : | CWA Gold Dagger (2020) |
Like the ringing of a dead man's phone, or an unwelcome guest at a funeral . . . In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him an outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears himself apart in the process.
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 . . . And with winter taking its grip, Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.
Joe Country (Slough House, #6) Reviews
-
Mick Herron is a splendid writer when it comes to his out of luck spies, the dregs of the world of espionage, the bunch of losers that are the slow horses, consigned to Slough House, the repository of the intelligence services ghosts and failures. This is a corker of a series, bulging with black humour and comic wit, Herron skewers with aplomb the joke that is the political establishment, with his barely disguised depictions of certain British politicians and their antics. You know right from the beginning that some of the slow horses are not going to make it out alive. This had me frantically trying to work out who, as I raced through, tense and afraid, for the slow horses have earned a special place in my heart. For those of you that have read the novella, The Drop, you will be aware that there is a new shell shocked slow horse, Lech Wicinski, whose 'crime' is considered to be way beyond the pale by all the others. Goaded by the complex monstrosity that is Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, it takes Wicinski only his first meeting with Lamb to realise that his new boss's thought processes would be terra incognita to the psychiatric profession.
It was only a matter of time before the perfidious and ambitious Lady Di Taverner was going to get, by hook or by crook, the position of First Desk at Regent's Park. She has her eyes on eliminating Emma Flyte, with plans of disposing of her into Slough House, it's a positive joy to have Emma tell her what she can do with that idea as she quits. River's grandfather, David Cartwright, is now dead, his funeral at the Spook's Chapel in Hampstead, where River's hated father, Frank Harkness, ex-CIA, now a mercenary, shows his unwanted face. Harkness was behind the death of a slow horse, there are scores to settle, and Lamb is not a man who forgives or forgets such a heinous act committed against one of his own joes. Louisa is still grieving the loss of Min Harper, and his wife, Clare, contacts her over the disappearance of her 17 year old son, Lucas. With the help of Roddy Ho and Emma, Louisa heads to Pembrokeshire in Wales in search of the missing boy. Fearing for Louisa, and becoming aware that Harkness and 3 other European mercenaries are in Wales too, Lamb dispatches a team of slow horses on a dangerous mission into Joe country in the most inclement of snowy and freezing weather.
This is another unforgettable addition to this stellar series which sees the return of the ghastly former home secretary, Peter Judd, up to no good as usual, demanding the attention of Lady Di. Lech cannot let the horror that has befallen him go, and Slough House ends up with even more ghosts to deal with. Lamb plays his cards close to his chest, engaging in machinations that underline just how much of an error of judgement it would be to write him off, and the perils of underestimating him. I did have worries about his health, he is Herron's genius creation, in all his glorious horror, the undisputed star of this series. I approach every new addition to this series with a great sense of anticipation and joy, it is so wonderfully entertaining and smart with a memorable set of characters, great plotlines, and so hilariously comic amidst the darkness of the rising body count and carnage. If you have yet to acquaint yourself with this series, start at the beginning, you are in for such a treat. Highly recommended. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC. -
Uh…good evening, officer. What? the neighbours heard screaming? Oh sorry, see I just got my hands on the latest Mick Herron. My bad.
C’mon, I can’t be the only one celebrating. This is one of my all time favourite series, an annual no-brainer purchase. Last year Herron gave us a shortie called The Drop & that story line plus a couple of the characters are woven into this outing.
It all begins with a prologue that will have fans on edge. There are bodies in a barn in Wales. And rumour has it some agents from Slough House were involved. Hold that thought. You’re about to find out how some Slow Horses ended up dashing through the snow in the Welsh countryside.
As usual there are multiple story lines on the go. River Cartwright is finally burying his grandfather. The old spook’s funeral is a solemn & covert affair. Right up until….well, let me just point out Jackson Lamb & his crew are in attendance. Did you really expect normal?
Louisa Guy is still mourning the death of fellow agent Min Harper. They had a relationship of sorts so when Min’s widow gets in touch to request they meet, Louisa’s not sure it’s a good idea. It seems their teenage son Lucas is missing & Min’s wife thinks the least Louisa can do is find him. Eventually she agrees & uses her contacts to track him to…Wales?
Meanwhile over in Regents Part, Diana Taverner has a problem. Hannah Weiss is a double agent who infiltrated the German intelligence service for MI6. Not so long ago, things got a little messy & Lady Di cleaned up by “promoting” Lech Wicinski, a low level agent who got stuck in the middle. Yep, he now reports to Jackson Lamb. Even worse, he shares an office with Roddy Ho. Yeesh, talk about kicking someone when they’re down. All Lech can do is find those responsible for his spectacular fall from grace.
As for Lamb, he’d have been happy to continue spending his days devising new ways to offend his merry band of misfits. But events at the funeral put that on hold. He’s finally got a chance for revenge on an old foe & some off-the-books digging reveals his prey is in….Wales? Huh. Must be getting a bit crowded over there.
Once again I tried to slowly dole out the chapters & once again I failed. For me, these books are like potato chips. It’s impossible to have a little taste then put them away. After the prologue, this one slows down as the author sets the stage for everything to come. I love the way he makes Slough House another living, breathing character that quietly observes the poor souls who trudge through its door every day. There are many strands to the plot & he keeps them running smoothly until they inevitably intersect. Along the way you’re treated to action, intrigue, twists & laughs. No one does dry black humour quite like Herron & I’ve learned my lesson about reading his books in public. But on the upside, it turns out snorting & grinning like a loon ensures you get a seat to yourself on the train.
Beneath the humour & zany antics are serious moments of grief & loss. This is an author who doesn’t shy away from killing off a beloved character & the tradition continues here. The ending makes it clear there’s a conspiracy in the works, one even Lamb may not survive. And so the wait for the next one begins & I swear I’ll read it slowly (sure).
4.5 stars -
The series is a winner I happened to have come across accidentally. The intrigue, the characters and the language, all boxes ticked for me. Never expected to become addicted to another spy series after Le Carre's demise ... Mr Herron, you did it again, thank you!
OverDrive, thank you! -
This was a good one. In fact it was a REALLY good one! Six books in and the Slow Horses are still such good value.
It helped of course that River Cartwright featured heavily in the main story and he has been one of my favourite characters since the start of the series. Jackson Lamb plays his usual dark yet funny role, Catherine is engaged in very odd behaviour for an alcoholic, and the 'new boy', Lech, suffers in a really shocking way.
Mick Herron writes beautifully and his treatment of the British political situation is hilarious, as is the way he deals with the Secret Service.
Joe Country also had an edge of real tension throughout as we knew from the beginning that two 'joes' were going to die. The scary part was which two? I went back and read the prologue twice to see if I could find more clues but I had to wait until the end of the book for my answer.
Please Mr. Herron - let Lamb get better, let Diana Taverner come to a really sticky end and please keep writing these books! -
5★
“‘Oh, we’re on the side of the angels, Oliver. You just have to remember that angels do God’s dirty work.’”
Joe Country. (Spook Country) Where Jackson Lamb’s joes are, doing the dirty work. They are the Slow Horses of Slough House, the downwardly mobile from Regent’s Park
“which was not, as the crow flies, a huge distance from Slough House, but by any other metaphor was a lifetime away. The Park was the Service’s headquarters; it was where baby spooks learned their ABCs, and where flyaway spooks returned, once their missions were complete. It was where you didn’t get to visit if you’d been exiled to Slough House. Once that had happened, it might as well be Oz: ruby slippers not included.”
I love this series. (This is the sixth.) We have some of the same Slow Horses (you win some, you lose some), and the author is very good at referring to the previous stories without actually giving any plot points away. So if you choose to read this one first, it won’t actually spoil an earlier book if you want to go back and read them (which I recommend!) So on to this latest.
His joes may be temperamental misfits or irritating cokeheads, but they are his joes, and when someone staged a bloody attack inside the stained and mouldering walls of Slough House not long ago, Jackson Lamb is out for their blood in return.
“Lamb had enjoyed all sorts of reputations, each of them circling one fixed point: you didn’t f**k with his joes.”
Lamb is the most slovenly, socially reprehensible, personally disgusting human being I’ve run across for a while. He’s also the smartest person in the room and not someone you’d want to cross. Herron delights in painting Lamb’s portrait from every possible angle, including with his smelly feet in holey socks up on the desk with his backside positioned towards his gathered crew as he lines up to let one rip. THAT kind of disgusting.
And you can’t avoid him. If you’ve been relegated to Slough House, in the hopes that you’ll resign so they don’t have to sack you and explain why (which Regent’s Park can’t explain, because it’s all classified, after all), then you might as well stick it out – it’s a paying job. As someone said:
“But this was Slough House, where Jackson Lamb made the rules, and provided you didn’t hide his lunch or steal his whisky, you could get away with murder. There’d been at least four corpses within these walls she knew of, and she didn’t work weekends.”
The Slow Horses are supposed to be just counting traffic tickets, and comparing electricity bills with the number of residents, and idle make-work projects like that, pretending to look for odd safe houses. But every now and then, Herron finds an excuse to cut Lamb and his joes loose and send them out into the countryside, and it’s always mayhem. Fascinating, clever (often foggy, cold, and wet, or in this case, freezing and snow-packed) and bloody mayhem.
This is the Cold War hotted up. Bad guys get into the UK and start hunting people. Lamb’s people. And one of them is responsible for slaughtering his joes before and right at home, too.
I’m fond of the characters. I was pleased to see more of River Cartwright again. He was the main character who introduced the series, and he’s a main thread that holds it together, but he’s certainly not alone.
Jackson Lamb’s right hand is Catherine, the ‘reformed’ alcoholic, who is still living every day looking forward to the special bottle of wine she’s going to buy at the bottle shop on the way home. Rodney Ho, the RodMan, the self-proclaimed digital magician has a running monologue in his head that is always entertaining. (To be fair, he IS pretty good at tracking stuff down.)
“The Rodster, on the other hand; give the Rodster anything with a monitor and a keyboard, he’d be watching rough cuts of the next Star Wars movie before you’d opened the popcorn.”
Then there's Shirley, ah yes, Shirley.
“Shirley had attended court-mandated anger management sessions not long back, and the sessions had been successful in the sense that she didn’t have to go to them any more, but unsuccessful in the sense that she’d punched someone in a nightclub earlier in the week. . .
her anorak’s skin was plucked and pitted from a recent encounter outside a nightclub, when a stuccoed wall had been used as a vertical mattress . . .”
Slough House is a character in itself, smothering the crew with its clammy dinginess, and Herron describes it so well that I tend to cringe from the smell and the rot.
“The threadbare carpets, worn in patches, revealed a floor which did not inspire confidence, and the walls bulged inwards in places, as if planning to obliterate all they contained. Paintwork blurred into various stains daubed in accident or anger – coffee splashes, curry sauces – and corners were black with mould. Even the air: even the air felt like it had come in here to hide. No, this was as bad as things got. A flamethrower would only improve matters.”
Herron has struck the perfect chord with his mix of spooks and politics and murder and intrigue and humour (black, non-PC, and downright chuckle-worthy). And to top it off, his descriptive passages alone are worth the price of admission.
“And now the building subsides, the effect of shadows cast by a passing bus. Memories stir, the residue of long brooding – the stains people leave on the spaces they’ve occupied – but these will be gone by morning, leaving in their place the usual vacancies, into which new sorrows and frustrations will be poured. Soon winter will shake its big stick again, not only at London but at everything in its path, and great swathes of the country will be swallowed by snow. By the time it melts, Slough House will have new ghosts. Until then, it will do its best to forget those it already has.”
Love it, love them all, and they just keep getting better. Thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for the preview copy.
#JoeCountry #NetGalley -
I’m not sure what I appreciate more - Herron’s humor or his ability to nail a description. Regardless, suffice it to say this is one of the most enjoyable spy thriller series out there.
This story starts with the death of River’s grandfather and the return of his father. There’s also a new slow horse, banished for child porn found on his company laptop. He’s determined to try and find who derailed his career. And Diana Taverner is now first desk and not finding it easy going.
I got a real kick out of a subplot involving a royal. Herron doesn’t pull any punches when expressing his thoughts about politicians and the games they play.
With each book, there are losses and we know from the very beginning that there will be in this book as well. It adds to the suspense, wondering who will still be alive for the next story.
This is not a series that works well when read out of order. There is just too much backstory that doesn’t get rehashed.
Gerard Doyle is absolutely perfect as the narrator. -
This was another very good episode in Herron's Slough House series. The writing as always is superb, the landscape cold and icy, the body count high and the humour dark. However, it all felt a little too familiar and without many surprises. The characters seem set without further character development but perhaps we're just getting to know them too well. Lamb in particular has become somewhat of a caricature of himself, but perhaps there are no new surprises for us there either. Roddy Ho, post girlfriend experience, does continue to provide some of the lighter moments in the novel, particularly when we get to share his visions of himself. There are two new characters in play, one newly exiled to Slough House for a crime so repulsive even the slow horses are disgusted, and the other a victim of Lady Di's changing of the guard as she takes over as first desk.
Herron has once again taken his characters out of their comfort zone in Slough House (where Lamb has them doing meaningless paperwork) and sent them out into the field, into Joe country. Louisa, still grieving for Min Harper, receives a call from Min's ex-wife asking for help to find her and Min's runaway son Lucas. She immediately asks for leave and with Roddy Ho's help tracks him to Wales. It seems he's got himself mixed up in something nasty so when Louisa drops out of contact Lamb sends in his troops to find her. Lamb is also concerned that River's father, ex-CIA agent Frank Harkness, now a mercenary leader, has been sighted at River's grandfather's funeral and wonders what he is doing back in the country.
As snow keeps falling and the weather closes in, the chase to rescue Lucas becomes a bit of a farce with agents and mercenaries tracking each other through the wintery woods and empty sheds and barns. This became a little tedious, particularly as there was less use of spycraft, even of the slow horse variety, than in previous books. We're told in the opening chapter that two agents will end up dead, so it's a matter of anxiously holding your breath until we find out which ones. Herron doesn't mind bumping off favourites when it comes to killing his Joes.
At the end of the book Herron has revealed that there are major changes ahead for Slough House and the slow horses, so we will just have to wait and see what those entail. -
Without doubt, this is currently my favourite series at the moment. Mick Herron has created an intelligent, darkly humorous, world of spooks and outsiders, which are enriched, and linked to, the novellas, which he ties into this book. This is very much part of a series though, so do not start with this book and imagine you can jump right in, or you will be lost. Instead, head back to, “Slow Horses,” and I envy you discovering Herron’s world from the start.
There is a new Slow Horse in this book, Alex Wicinski, who begins life at Slough House like so many before him – confused, bewildered, and in denial. This will all be sorted, he will soon be back at the Park and his life will soon be back on track. Those who have already been side-lined to the world of the Slow Horses avoid him, as though his despair is contagious. They know the score and are aware the road from the Park to Slough House, is one way.
However, the mindless, numbing tasks that the group are usually involved in, are soon forgotten, as, some of the Slow Horses, find themselves, once again in Joe Country. Louisa is asked to help Min Harper’s wife and, out of guilt, and a sense of responsibility, finds herself on a mission that should be fairly simple and soon isn’t. Meanwhile, River is enraged when his long missing father appears back in the picture and, as he so often does, reacts without thinking things through.
From Mick Herron’s sly portraits of current politicians, to his recognition of the casual cruelty still deemed acceptable by those with money and power, through to his wonderful recognitions of the weaknesses and strengths of the country (including London grinding to a halt after a few snowflakes) and we are back in his world. Beneath the humour there is darkness, and danger, and death. Fans will be smitten, concerned, and emotionally wrung out by the end of this book. As it should be, we long to read more. I (gratefully) received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review. -
5 ☆
You could usually rely on the slow horses to make a bad situation worse.
For the denizens of Slough House, events turn very personal in Joe Country, the type of storyline I like most in this already fantastic series. Slough House is the repository for MI5's disgraced employees.
For it has secrets: like every building in every city, Slough House is a neuron in an urban hippocampus, and retains the echo of all it's seen and heard. Memories have stained its walls and seeped into its stairwell; they reek of failure, and have been scrubbed from the public record, but they persist, and they're not for intruders' eyes.
Branded with the moniker "slow horses," most of the Slough House residents still want to be joes, or agents in the field. Within the dank walls, their daily grindstone has yet to crush all hope.
... their enforced inertia, the mind-mushing sameness of their days, meant that any hint of action and they leaped at it, and damn the consequences.
Damn the consequences indeed as a surprise phone call and a lurker presage a dangerous foray into joe country, where any stranger could prove too late to be hostile.
A wilderness of mirrors, the land of spooks. Nothing you saw meant what it seemed, apart from those times when it did. Telling the two apart was the tricky bit. Knowing which was real, which the reflection.
Joe Country contains a more straightforward plot with cat-and-mouse action compared with the earlier installments. Nonetheless, the emotional trajectories of the main characters and Herron's bold decisions make it a really excellent novel, even with many of its potentially upsetting events. Herron has consistently provided a glimpse into the minds of all of his major protagonists but with the stark omission of Jackson Lamb. In Joe Country, Lamb finally provides a more detailed explanation for the events that preceded Slough House's creation. Unlike the previous novels, Herron ends Joe Country on a puzzling note for a mini cliffhanger, and I'm also wary that Herron is cloaking more surprises for future revelations. Although I don't recommend it, this could be read as a standalone.
For more background information of the newest slow horse and a minor op, read the short stories
The List and
The Marylebone Drop.
Characters also mention "The Last Dead Letter." This is a short story involving Jackson Lamb and MI5 archivist Molly Doran. It is included in the 10th anniversary US edition of
Slow Horses. -
'Two chicks,' Lars grumbled. 'What is this? Charlie's Angels?'
Don't even think about reading this if you're new to Herron's
Slow Horses series: too many plot trails, too many character arcs are carried forward from what has gone before. But for devotees, there are intriguing developments with PJ back on the scene, and as scarily obnoxious and self-serving as ever.
I don't want to give away even hints of spoilers but will say that there are some painful deaths, a vast coincidence that ties the various plot strands together, and far too long spent chasing around snowy Wales for my taste with quick-switch cuts between the various hunters and huntees.
Still, Herron's writing is just so sharp, snarky and blackly funny that I can forgive much; and his handle on realpolitik is spot-on as usual. And with a sudden revelation as the end, this series has bags more mileage - thankfully.
Many thanks to John Murray for an ARC via NetGalley -
*** UK £0.99 today at Amazon ***
W O W ! Mick Herron reaches the top tier! Just look at all the quotes below!
Joe Country is by far his best-ever spy noir. Fabulous!
Thank you again, NetGalley, for this wonderful series.
Truly great noir, and terrific wry humour. Whereas Herron's earlier books oozed bravado, this one exudes confidence. Herron is fully in control, and the result is marvellous.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.
London's Most Famous Spy Locations (The Telegraph)
48%
Excellent so far. Great chats between the players, especially the private one between Catherine and Lamb. Scary one between Taverner and Judd.
River's father, as we learned in the previous book, is really a terribly nasty piece of work. Some nasty people only get nastier with age, perhaps as a kind of desperation to make nastiness work for them.
55%
I don't remember Shirley being such a total arse in previous books. Whatever. She's even worse here.
Much of the book takes place in Wales during a snowstorm
Full size image here
60%
The arrogance, carelessness and inhumanity of those in charge of the Park keep compounding, ruining the lives of the innocent just to escape from responsibility for their ineptitude. Sickening.
76%
Fascinating. Bad guy Lars dealing out some justice to a random gobshite along his path. Redemptive? No, he still heads off to kill the innocent.
78%
Even though the story has split into eight points of view, Herron manages to keep them all straight and clear and tense. Great stuff !
85%
Terrific multiple climaxes, terrible losses and a very satisfying resolution. Extraordinary noir, poignant, complex and not at all predictable.
Some outstanding quotes:
Herron feels the city in winter:
Snow was forecast, and the pavements were hard as iron.You felt it in each step, the bone-cold stones hammering through your frame, because this was what London did, when the weather reminded the city it was temporary: it hunched down tight.
River considers his dying grandfather:
The bed the O.B. would never leave was a clinical, robust device, with upright panels to prevent him from rolling off, and various machines monitoring his progress. On one, his pulse echoed, a signal tapped out from a wavering source. A last border crossing, thought River. His grandfather was entering joe country.
Herron does not hide his political vitriol:
It turned out that in the governance of a nation’s security, many absurd situations had to be worked around: a toxic clown in the Foreign Office [Boris Johnson], a state visit by a narcissistic bed-wetter [Trump], the tendency of the electorate to jump off' the occasional cliff [Brexit].
A bit of noir:
And now the building [Slough House] subsides, the effect of shadows cast by a passing bus. Memories stir, the residue of long brooding-the stains people leave on the spaces they’ve occupied-but these will be gone by morning, leaving in their place the usual vacancies, into which new sorrows and frustrations will be poured.
Lech contemplates his parents' journey from Poland after WW-2
...he couldn’t help wondering how it had felt: refugees turning up from concentration camps, from a broken Europe, to find this bleak estate; its squat huts their new homes.There’d been watch towers and barbed wire fences. It can’t have looked like freedom. But freedom was measured, he supposed, by what you were leaving behind.
The last of the O.B. [old bastard]:
For the last year of his life, his grandfather’s conversations had had no anchor, and whether he’d been talking to Rose, who was absent, or River, who was not, made no difference; he would drift with the prevailing current, his conversation spinning into eddies or battering invisible rocks. All his life, River had heard tales from the old man’s past, the failures, the victories, the stalemates, and he had learned to read between the lines enough to tell which was which. But no longer. The scraps he heard now were remnants from a shot memory; tattered flags blown by conflicting winds.You’d need a map to know which side the old man had been on. Which might have been the last secret he needed to impart to his grandson; that in the end, all lines blurred. That no day had firm borders.
River is repeatedly abused by memories of the disdain of his mother, and the outright cruelty of his father:
River hadn’t lived with his mother since he was seven, when she’d left him at her parents’ door, and his fading memories of the life they’d shared were scrappy and unfulhlled. Until lately, when he’d thought about those years, the context had been one of bad parenting, but now he thought about how unhappy she must have been, how desperate. He didn’t think she’d survive another taste of that. He was pretty certain he wouldn’t survive hearing about it.
Taverner trying to rid herself of her sins at Slough House, and the brilliant slob Lamb thwarting her at every turn:
River would suggest they get a room, provided the room was soundproofed, locked, and had an alligator in it.
Reminds us of Boris Johnson's utter, shameful failure as Foreign Secretary, set up by Theresa May two years ago:
If you want your enemy to fail, give him something important to do. This stratagem-known for obscure historical reasons as ‘The Boris’
A bit of the love-hate of alcoholism:
[Catherine] left the Tube a stop early, called at the Wine Citadel, and bought a Barolo. An understated label of which she approved. A good wine spoke for itself. It went into a plastic bag, and should have been an anonymous weight in her hand, but somehow wasn’t. There was something about a full bottle, the way it responded to gravity, that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. It was like carrying a big brass key, which would open the biggest door ever heard of.
Something's wrong with Lamb, even more than usual:
Catherine: ‘Chest infection! You’re sure? It sounds like your whole body’s in revolt.’
Lamb: ‘Antibiotics’ll clear it up.’
C: ‘They tend not to work with drink taken.’
L: ‘They’re drugs, they’re not fucking Irishmen.’
Super-gnurd, Roddy Ho:
He’d been listening to the classics lately-Guns n’ Roses; Deep Purple-an indication of growing maturity. There was a specially wistful drum solo on "Live in Japan". That shit had escaped him when he was younger.
Betrayal:
... "enough,’ she said, ‘that he could work it out and sell the name?’
‘He didn’t have to.’ Lamb’s words were hard as bullets. ‘He only had to sell a single syllable.’
That made no sense, until it did. What single syllable could make a difference? Only one Catherine could think of. She.
Lamb considers the O.B.
The last time she’d seen David Cartwright he’d been a scared old man, nervy of shadows. Perhaps it was true what they said about age: that in its darker corners lurk the monsters of our own making.
Catherine's memories of the terrible end for her last boss, Charles Partner:
Catherine closed her eyes and saw it again: Partner’s body in the bathtub; the contents of his head a red mess on the porcelain. A pulpy mixture, like trodden grapes. Some memories seared themselves on your mind, like a shadow on a wall after a nuclear flash.
Louisa considers how far the service has fallen since the greats of the post-war/cold-war era:
Secrecy was the Service’s watchword, but leaking like a sieve was what it did best. When the leaked material was classified the leaker was tracked down and strung up, or so the handbook required,
Emma Flyte with River sees his apartment for the first time:
"Nice as your place is.’
‘My cleaner’s not been well.’
‘Looks like your cleaner got old and died. Possibly of shock when decimal currency came in."
River considers how to catch Frank, his monster of a father, with the limited resources of Slough House:
Given the run of the hub, they’d pinpoint his whereabouts in hours, but with the resources at their disposal River might as well be on Slough House’s roof, using a kitchen roll holder as a telescope.
Idiot Pynne considers the agent he's running in London:
Pynne had never wanted to be a joe, preferring to view the world from a desk, confident that these desks would become bigger, their views more panoramic, as his career skyrocketed. But it couldn’t be denied that moments like this carried excitement; a pleasure that was necessarily furtive, borderline sexual.
River confronts Lamb:
River heard a striking match.
Lamb: ‘Still got your going-away present?’
River: ‘Yes.’
L: ‘Good. Shoot yourself in the head. Then Shirley. Then the mad monk.’
R: ‘Definitely the order I’d choose,’ River said.
The bad guys are armed with Sig Sauers
Snow in joe country, in Wales:
The fields all around were smooth plains, and the trees against the morning skyline looked like Christmas decorations. Snow, though. Soft and fluffy on the outside, but ruthless as a shark. It was the fucking Disney Corp by other means.
Judd confronts Taverner:
He raised a hand to forestall her response.
‘Don’t bother denying it. We both know the PM’s a tormented creature [Theresa May]. Like one of those soft toys lorry drivers fix to their radiator grilles.That expression she wears, it’s terror at all the oncoming vehicles.’
Full size image here -
First read in May 2019. Re-read in May 2023.
On the off chance you are not hip to the Slough House series then do yourself a favour and start from the beginning and savour each one. If you're in that fortunate position then I envy you. These books only make sense as an ongoing series.
Joe Country (2019) is the sixth in the series.
When I first read
Joe Country I raced through it, and it's this, rather than my ageing brain, to which I attribute the fact I'd forgotten most of it when I came to reread it. Needless to say it's another splendid excursion into the world of the slow horses and, I'd say, one of the very best. Regular readers know the sense of jeopardy is real. Favourite characters can, and do, die.
Slough House is the dumping ground for MI5’s misfits and failures. Jackson Lamb, the Slough House boss may be obnoxious, with disgusting personal habits, but ultimately he does look out for each and every slow horse. They are all his "Joes".
Joe Country follows straight on from
The Drop: A Slough House Novella (Slough House #5.5) which introduced a new slow horse - Lech Wicinski.
The less you know about the plot the better, suffice to say it delivers and then some.
An explosive revelation at the end will leave you eager to devour the next instalment.
5/5
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I was thrilled when my hold on Joe Country came in at the library. Because what is better than spending time with the Slow Horses of Slough House?
Once again, Jackson Lamb lets some of the horses out of the barn. They’re off to Wales in a snow storm to search for Louisa:”We know Louisa was here,” he said. “We know she dumped her phone nearby...I think she got rid of it on purpose. She was going dark.”
“Which is protocol,” said J.K. Coe, “after hostile contact.”
“And she’s got her monkey wrench with her,” said Shirley. “Which means the hostiles might have suffered some contact themselves.”
This novel has all of the things that readers of the Slough House series have come to expect: backstabbing, deceit, ill conceived rescue plans, and general obnoxiousness of certain characters.Lamb broke wind loudly. Nobody moved. “Did I misfart? That’s your signal to leave.” They left.
Herron also has an excellent way of weaving the real events of our world into his nearly contemporary Britain.
”If Frank Harkness only went places he was welcome,” said Lamb, “he’d have the social life of Julian Assange.”
“He’s already Kevin Spaceyed his career,” Lamb said. “If he wants to go for the full Rolf Harris, he’s a braver man than me.”
If you haven’t met the failed spies of Slough House yet, by all means proceed to the first book,
Slow Horses, and start to enjoy their despair.So many different ways to die arising from the same mistake. That could almost be a mission statement. If not for the Service as a whole, at least for Slough House.
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Holy f'ing hell.
Herron's Slow Horses series is the best mystery/thriller series being written, bar none.
I'm a very fast reader, sometimes reading more for plot and developments than word by word but - although I still read this book in a single day, I don't skip anything Herron - his wording is too damn good to miss anything. -
Quite the disappointment this time. This, the 6th in series, falls hard out of a formerly precariously balanced Goldilocks zone.
The snarky, disgusting, clever, menacing, and biting banter and personal habits that define the Lamb persona and his relationship with pretty much everyone finally goes too far. Not necessarily too far with the Lamb character, but with it’s weight in the full tone of the book.
Lamb’s spiky sick snark did, successfully, previously spill over to several of the others in the cast of spies.
And to Herron’s credit, in earlier books he gave each of these princes and princesses of snide their own versions of what seems to be the original take-off inspiration for Lamb and company, the British class-based stereotyped stance of preciously clever and snooty meets snarky ironic. But always, in stereotype, this is fit, if only just, for general company. Herron’s upending of key parts of that type used to make for a fresh and just-palatable-enough character set. His ability to make you look, cringe, and still care is part of his signature in this series.
Unfortunately in this novel, his success with that tone seems to have encouraged a clumsy broad-brush application to all manner of characters in various roles and originations. It’s no longer believable, and voice differentiation and characterization is lost.
For want of a nail, and so forth, this misstep has repercussions throughout.
With many newer characters’ voices and personas inauthentic and therefore uninteresting, I no longer feared them or feared for them, which didn’t help carry the plot—which this time was overly complicated yet far too conveniently tied up at the end.
The novel tried to be bigger, more far-reaching in several ways, an applaudable ambition. Herron is someone who could pull that off, but here it became tedious and slow before the middle and generally stayed that way, and where I expected the spark of the thriller genre and Herron’s formerly sure touch to pull it through, the results were mostly unbelievable and unrewarding.
There is quite the body count, and of many of the wrong people, people you think didn’t deserve their fate. Add to that more grisly in-the-face shock value than usual. Again this fails, disappointingly, distressingly, to move me, only to depress me.
Our favorite Slough House characters are pretty static in this novel. Some things happen to them and they have some behaviors to notice, but no one is credibly learning, growing, crumbling, or collapsing as compared to earlier novels. I looked forward to visiting them in this novel, but was left wondering if I was actually as interested in them as I thought I remembered being.
I won’t be put off the whole series by one serious trip-up, but I will be looking for the next entry with as much trepidation as interest. -
I actually thought I'd reviewed this as I finished it a few days ago - ho hum. Anyway - for me - this may well be the best of the series so far I think. Lamb is on his very "best" behaviour :) He has to be one of the most inappropriate lead characters I've come across but he is so well written. The funeral scene with Lamb there is excellent.
Roddy Ho moves up a notch - indeed it's probably around 100 notches in his own estimation!! The other lead people are all good. However... The author really does play with the reader in this one. The book starts with what might be an ending of some sort - clues are lightly scattered around as to who may be involved. Around halfway through there are further nudges just to make sure the reader never relaxes!! Plenty of red and often quite smelling herrings make for a twisty tale. I really do love this series. -
This latest tale in the Slough House series begins with a barn in Wales being set on fire. Two bodies are inside.
Meanwhile, in London, Britain's head of the Secret Service, Diana "Lady Di" Taverner is being her usual manipulative self - wheeling and dealing with politicians to get more funding for the "spooks" before sacking Emma Flyte from her post as "Head Dog", in charge of the security staff at Secret Service HQ. Emma brilliantly sums up Diana Taverner's scheming with the line: "You'd burn down a city to save face."
At Slough House, the Slow Horses have a new member, Lech Wicinski. The reason for his demotion is far worse than any of the "crimes" made by the building's existing rejects who carry out all the boring jobs required to root out the various threats to the nation's security.
One of them, River Cartwright, is preparing for the funeral of his grandfather, a former head of the Secret Service but that event turns into farce as he spots his father, ex CIA agent turned mercenary, Frank Harkness with whom River and his boss, Jackson Lamb, has a score to settle.
This is the 7th book in the series - there having been a novella "The Drop" which preceded it and two characters from that book feature in "Joe Country".
Another Slough House inmate, Louisa Guy, receives a call from the wife of her dead lover, Min Harper. Min's son Lucas has disappeared and his mother wants her to use her intelligence connections to find him.
Various strands of the story spin out as Louisa takes a holiday in order to track down Lucas who is somewhere in Pembrokeshire. As she heads off on her mission, Jackson Lamb is informed that Frank Harkness and 3 European mercenaries seem to be heading to the same location as Louisa Guy. Keen to dish out justice to the man responsible for the death of one of his slow horses, Lamb sends River and 2 others to find out what the mercenary squad is up to.
As they set off for Wales, winter sets in and the action switches between snowbound Pembrokeshire and London as author Mick Herron gradually draws the multiple strands of the story together.
This is not a stand alone novel as there are too many links back to previous books in the series, but the main characters are up to their usual tricks with politicians and civil servants (including the spooks) bickering and backstabbing on a daily basis. There are marvellous descriptions of London and the living entity that is Slough House. There are also delightful descriptions of the winter weather and how a single day's snowfall paralyses Britain's cities and countryside; the latter adding more problems to the dangers already being faced by River and his colleagues. Jackson Lamb is his usual caustic self while his long suffering secretary Catherine has almost reached breaking point. Throughout this latest tale, the reader can delight in the jet black humour which laces all of the Slough House stories. I love how Mick Herron can skewer Britain's high and mighty in a single sentence and along the way take sideswipes at the Brexit debacle and the machinations of politicians who only have their own interests at heart. A great addition to a wonderful series. Highly recommended.
My thanks to John Murray Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review. (Please note that I have already bought the previous 5 and a half Slough House books, so I'm a committed fan!) -
I was disappointed with this one. There was a fair amount of the usual humour I enjoy so much, but the plot seemed thin and bitty, and I got tired of endless snow and barns and sheds and snow. The fact that four assassins were sent after a teenage boy, failed miserably to neutralize him, and then their employer was happy to let things rest once the boy promised to keep his mouth shut, seemed unlikely to the point of being ridiculous.
The last conversation between Judd and Taverner read like an essay and was a blatant set-up for a subsequent novel, which left me not terribly enthusiastic about reading it. -
Frost had rimed the headstones’ edges; it had captured, too, a hundred spider webs, transforming them to works of antique beauty: jewellery fit to adorn the Egyptian dead…
Joe Country opens with two mercenaries cleaning up after an aborted mission in South Wales, covering their tracks and the bodies, at least one of whom is a “Slow Horse”, one of the failed spooks consigned to reflect on moments of carelessness, a bad lifestyle choice or rubbing someone important up the wrong way, sentenced to tedium at Slough House, under the watchful eye of the odious Jackson Lamb. But with that teaser we have to wait for later in the book as events unfold.
In London, after successfully back-stabbing the competition to gain the poisoned chalice that is First Desk at Regents Park (MI5 HQ), Di Tavener is sweeping her broom. An early departure is Top Dog, chief of internal security, Emma Flyte, formerly of the Met. Given an unpalatable alternative Flyte resigns. At Slough House, secretary Catherine is nursing her demons, after Di Taverner whispered in her ear ‘there’s something you ought to know’ about her current boss, Jackson Lamb and her previous boss, First Desk and outed traitor, Charles Partner. Elsewhere in the threadbare building, resident hacker - the self-styled “Rodstar” - Rodney Ho keeps a low profile after nearly becoming a traitor himself, but is intent on finding the dirt on new guy, Lech (Alec) Wicinski, and his downward spiral that led him there. Then Louisa Guy answers the phone ringing on the desk of former lover, the late Min Harper, to find that his widow wants to meet. Meanwhile, River Cartwright rushes to the death bed of his grandfather, the O.B. – a former cold war spy who raised him…
After this rather sombre beginning to a dark and yet funny drama, three distinct threads emerge which overlap and eventually congeal. Min’s teenage son has gone missing and his mother enlists Louisa’s help to find him. At the O.B.’s funeral, River Cartwright is escorting his mother to the grave when he sees his father, Frank Harkness, former CIA operative turned mercenary, standing in the shadows and gives chase. Naturally, River is outwitted, but the scene is observed by many, and what was he actually doing there?
The details of Harkness’s last UK appearance, shortly after the Westacres bombing, were still under wraps – not so much buried in the files for thirty years as left blowing in the wind, to be scattered for all time.
Despite their failings and foibles, staff at Slough House have their strongpoints. Roddy was viewing footage from this morning now, thirty-two boxes worth, each flipping into a new channel every few seconds because there was a lot of CCTV in Hampstead: a lot. Like everywhere else in London, when you walked the streets you were auditioning for the non-speaking role of passer-by. Or perhaps trying out as a stuntman.
The Rodstar homes in on the hire car Harkness was driving, and for his part, psycho-in-residence J K Coe, noted for his long silences, breaks his to give names of three bad actors arriving in Southhampton on the same ferry. As blizzard conditions grind the country to a halt, Louisa, with the unlikely help of Emma Flyte and the even less likely of Rodney Ho, heads to Wales to find Min’s missing son, with the others in “slow” pursuit, bickering as ever, totally underprepared.
Given the run of the hub, they’d pinpoint (Harkness’s) whereabouts in hours, but with the resources at their disposal River might as well be on Slough House’s roof, using a kitchen roll holder as a telescope.
Meanwhile Di Tavener meets with Peter Judd, a former Home Secretary, now a consultant, with an eye on returning to the political fray.
Secrecy was the Service’s watchword, but leaking like a sieve was what it did best…so when Di Tavener had a meeting “off the books” she tagged it personal time in her calendar, happy for her staff to weave erotic legends around her absence, just as long as that kept them from any darker truth.
These books just get better, though it would be useful to read the earlier ones first. The noir feel is interspersed with laugh out loud humour, potting at celebrities, Brexit, and yet another scandal involving a senior member of the Royal Family for the establishment to quietly sweep aside. Some profanities (but taken in context, fits perfectly). Along the way we discover secrets from Jackson Lamb’s past, how he always protects his “joes”, and where Molly Doran fits into the picture. The fates of two of the characters are revealed, but the biggest shock is saved for last: could this really be the final race for the “Slow Horses”?
Overall: a perfect read. Flawed characters. A plot skillfully weaved. Moments of reflected beauty. Meaty chapters. Punctuation. Doesn’t get much better than that. -
Joe Country for Old Slow Horses
Review of the Recorded Books audiobook edition (2019) narrated by
Gerard Doyle of the Soho Crime hardcover original (2019). . . which led, in turn, to the further discovery that Diana Taverner didn't always have to press a button to cause the glass walls of her office to frost over. Sometimes she could do it through sheer force of rage. - excerpt from 'Joe Country'.
Actors Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho, and Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, in a scene from Season One of the Apple TV+ adaptation of the Slough House book series.
Joe Country jumps into the 5-star bracket for author Mick Herron's Slough House/Slow Horses series for the primary reason that it joins up, pays off, and/or closes several long running plot arcs of the books. That becomes easier to appreciate when one is doing a binge of the novels and novellas as I've been doing since seeing Season 1 (April 2022) of the Apple TV+ series based on book 1
Slow Horses (2010). Fans from the first days back in 2010 must have had a harder time keeping it all straight with 1 to 2 years break between each book.
Discussing many details about all of those would get extremely spoilery though so this review will stick to vague generalizations. The disappearance of the son of a former Slough House employee kicks off the plot when Louisa Guy is called upon to assist in the search by the boy's mother. She gets help from ex-Head Dog Emma Flyte, who, being a favourite of former First Desk Claude Whelan, is now out of the Service through the machinations of new First Desk Diana Taverner.
Meanwhile, Lech Wicinski, who was bounced to Slough House after being disgraced by the German BND when he assisted milkman John Bachelor in the Slough House novella
The Drop (#5.5 2018), is still trying to figure out what happened and may need further discouragement. River Cartwright's nemesis and [spoiler connection redacted] Frank Harkness from
Spook Street (#4 2017) makes his return at the funeral of River's beloved grandfather, the O.B.
But Harkness also has yet another hit squad of mercenaries in tow. It all centres around yet another coverup for the elites and the monarchy by the usual manipulative forces. And Catherine Standish has her greatest confrontation yet with Jackson Lamb, now knowing all about the death of her former boss, former First Desk Charles Partner.
Only the gross, slovenly and flatulent head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb, with his instinctive knowledge of backstabbing and betrayal in the bureaucracy and the security services can put together all of the pieces. And the rest of Slough House is called out to stop the villains, but not all of our heroes will survive this encounter.
Trivia and Links
There is a Slough House glossary at
SpyWrite.com (with some spoilers obviously, but the most major spoilers are hidden behind white script which you have to mouse over in order to read) which is extremely useful if you are trying to follow all of the characters and story arcs of the series and looking for definitions to the words and expressions of author Mick Herron's invented spy terminology.
Joe Country could be the basis for a future Season 6 of the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses (2022 - ?), if the show is extended past its current renewal up to a Season 4. You can watch the Season 2 teaser (based on Book 2 "Dead Lions") on YouTube
here. You can watch the Season 1 trailer (based on Book 1 "Slow Horses") on YouTube
here. -
Joe Country is the sixth book in the Slough House series by prize-winning British author, Mick Herron. Standing at the graveside next to his mother, River Cartwright is paying his final respects to his beloved grandfather, David. The solemnity of the occasion is shattered when he spots the unwelcome face of the man he would probably most want to kill, and gives chase.
Back at Slough House, Jackson Lamb does not hesitate to set his charges to work on finding out when Frank Harkness arrived in the country, with whom, and where he might be headed. Because his presence at the funeral cannot have been benign, and this is the man responsible for the death of at least one of his operatives. And they may be slow horses, but they're his slow horses, and Lamb will not tolerate trespass on his territory.
Not participating, however, are: Louisa Guy, who is surprised to find herself taking leave to track down a teenaged boy as a favour to a certain widow; and Lech Wicinski, Slough House’s newest member. Readers of Herron’s novella, The Drop will be aware of the alleged misdeed that has landed him here, and is causing the others to keep their distance, despite his protestations of innocence.
Events soon have several of them racing off to Wales despite the predicted heavy snowfall. This leads to some rather radical driving, reluctant huddling together for warmth, encounters with nasty killers, and an exploding barn. An earlobe is bitten off, toes are shot at and some home truths are told.
As always, Lamb is the master of obnoxious insult (in fact, it seems to be rubbing off on his crew: Emma Flyte remarks “I sometimes wonder if Lamb gives you all lessons in smart-arsery”); Roddy Ho continues to remain deluded as to his own importance; Catherine Standish remains a stalwart of comfort and guidance; J.K. Coe maintains his silence; and Shirley Dander, despite passing her anger management course, still barely controls her simmering, sometimes seething, anger.
Again, the dialogue provides plenty of (often quite black) humour and, while this one will incite plenty of guffaws rather than giggles, dedicated readers know that Herron shows his regular characters no mercy: from the first pages it is apparent that some of their number will probably be dead by the last page. The realisation of this by their colleagues is a sober moment that may well cause a lump in the throat.
Di Taverner, now First Desk, apparently has plans for Slough House and the final page will have fans wondering what fate Herron intends for our favourite slow horses. Excellent British spy fiction, as always. -
Just brilliant and a little bit heartbreaking 😭🙀
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Actually 4.5★ for this, the 6th instalment of the Slough House series. Not quite my favourite so far, but deserving of a little extra for finally bringing together the two story arcs that have been moving forward separately in the novels and novellas. I've already collected #6.5 from the library to continue on, very soon.
As often happens, we start near the end, this time with the knowledge that one or more of our favourite misfit spies has died in snowbound Wales. If there's a better way to get a reader turning the pages, I don't know what it is! Meanwhile, back in London, Alec Wicinski has arrived at Slough House, still completely bemused by his sudden change of fortune. Jackson Lamb clearly isn't up with the latest legal nuances of people management because he's only too happy to make his curious underlings aware of the nature of Alec/Lech's fall from grace. The other thing that has happened, foreshadowed in the past 2-3 books, is the death of David Cartwright - River's grandfather. The funeral is well-attended, and even gains the attention of another figure from River's past. When this comes to light in the most unbecoming way, Lamb can't resist letting the Slow Horses out of the stable in pursuit.
Of course, there's a lot more going on, and all is not as it seems. Herron has dialled up the wit, and kept the storyline very current. One of the things I really admire about this series is how expendable the characters are. Herron doesn't hesitate to sacrifice someone for the good of the story, and they tend to be all the more exciting for it. But he always remembers them fondly, and reminds the readers too, with the memories of Marcus, Min and even Sidonie (from book #1), all making an appearance in thought, if not in real life.
A great addition to the series. -
I'm not sure what makes me sadder - the fact that two of the good guys get killed, or that this is the last book of the series (for now, at least). Fortunately, the two dead people are not main characters, so life can go on. And there's one novella (5.5) that I haven't read, so there's that. Other than these problems, the book was great with lots of humor, often simple one-liners that make the series so much fun. Near the beginning of the book, Roddy Ho, clueless as always, got a new office mate that he resented because he objected to Roddy's stuff being spread out everywhere, including the new guy's desk.
So, Roddy decides to investigate the guy and find out why he was there, but failed. The next day, the guy was reading his mail, then wadded it all up, threw it in the waste bin, and stormed out. So, of course, Roddy has to go through the bin, and finds a bunch of blank pages, then finally one page that says "Fuck you, you little snoop." Roddy thinks "Now what the hell was that about?" Roddy really is clueless.
He then reaches into the bin to get more papers, and bang! Instant pain. He got bit by a mousetrap. Roddy's clueless response was "Why the hell had the stupid bastard thrown away a perfectly good mousetrap?"
Just one of many bits of fun and games at Slough House.
Although there's lots of silliness, don't worry, everyone is polite and politically correct. Wait, wrong book, that's not the case at all. In case you haven't read any of the books yet, the boss, Charles Lamb, is the boss from hell. He's totally impolite, politically incorrect, seemingly mean-spirited, smokes where it's not allowed, drinks to excess, and seems fat and slovenly. And those are his good points. But he's the hero who seems to know it all, saves the day on a number of occasions, and gets his people out of trouble when he's not getting them into trouble. Nobody can control him, or even score a point against him, it seems.
This series is so good that I plan to do something I rarely do - start over and reread the first few now that I know the characters better. I may or may not stop after the first few. But there's so much happening in each book that I know I miss things along the way. -
Absolutely superb. This series is remarkable. It's very clever and witty, full of abominable people, and yet Mick Herron makes us care intensely for a fair few of them. It seems as if every human failing can be found in Slough House, the place where disgraced spies are sent to be forgotten, not to mention a fair few tragedies and ghosts, but there's a warmth to be found in the least likely of places. Much of the story here takes place in a frozen, snow-covered Pembrokeshire, and it is shocking. Brilliant storytelling by the master of the modern spy thriller. Once met, Jackson Lamb can never be forgotten. Roderick Ho, my personal favourite, is on top form here. Review to follow closer to publication on For Winter Nights.
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We learn in the prologue two "joes" die and I was anxious while reading to find out who. I've become strangely attached these wonderfully flawed characters. Glad to have discovered this brilliant series late, so I can move right on to the next book.
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Book six in the magnificent Slough House series is probably the bleakest yet - I finished this feeling as numb as if I myself had been battling through the snow-storm that serves as a backdrop for all the action. We know from the start that at least two of the Slow Horses won’t make it out, and since Herron has proved in the earlier books that no one is safe, the wait to find out who was unbearable - but made for one hell of a thriller.
I haven’t read The List or The Drop, which are the novellas about different characters in the SH world, and explain how Alec/Lech Wicinski ends up a Slow Horse; I didn’t think this was a problem as the backstory is filled in, but might come back to them later - they’re currently over-priced for their length.
I was disappointed to be declined an ARC of this a few weeks ago, but would’ve been happy to buy it, then saw it up there again and got lucky second time, giving me the excuse to put it to the top of my TBR.
It deep winter and the Slow Horses are trudging through their days of apparently meaningless makework imposed by their boss, the insufferable Jackson Lamb. When Louisa, still mourning the future she had planned with Min Harper more than the man himself, receives a call from his ex-wife to say their teenage son has gone missing, she sees links to the reappearance of River’s evil father, mercenary Frank Harness, and sets off to find him. When she goes dark, her colleagues will follow her trail to snowbound Wales, reluctantly sanctioned by Lamb, who won’t let anyone mess with his Joes.
This is the wittiest modern thriller series out there - the prose is breathtaking in its dry savagery, skewering primarily the British political situation and its leaders, but really no one is spared. The Security Services are depicted as just another agency to spare the the elite from embarrassment, with cover-ups as routine as housekeeping. The secondary plot - Lech’s attempts to find out who had him banished by putting child porn onto his laptop - with horrific consequences, demonstrated how callous the higher-ups are even when dealing with their own, and Lamb can be just as bad.
There is humour here, but it’s pretty grim: the world seen through the eyes of Roddy Ho is as light as it gets, but I love that kind of black comedy which is pretty rare in thriller fiction. There are thinly disguised caricatures of politicians, and not just British (the mention of a visit by a bed wetting narcissist had me snorting into my wine). Something awful happens to a bird in the beginning - is this a new trend? - Black Summer did this too - but that’s the only harm suffered by animals. I can’t say the same about people, mind.
I definitely recommend reading these books in order from the beginning, as while each is a separate story, you need to know each character’s history to understand why such a bunch of misfits will put their lives on the line for each other. There are clearly more Machiavellian schemes ahead for the team to navigate and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review. Joe Country is available now. -
Joe Country is the sixth book in the Slough House series by prize-winning British author, Mick Herron. The audio version is narrated by Sean Barrett. Standing at the graveside next to his mother, River Cartwright is paying his final respects to his beloved grandfather, David. The solemnity of the occasion is shattered when he spots the unwelcome face of the man he would probably most want to kill, and gives chase.
Back at Slough House, Jackson Lamb does not hesitate to set his charges to work on finding out when Frank Harkness arrived in the country, with whom, and where he might be headed. Because his presence at the funeral cannot have been benign, and this is the man responsible for the death of at least one of his operatives. And they may be slow horses, but they're his slow horses, and Lamb will not tolerate trespass on his territory.
Not participating, however, are: Louisa Guy, who is surprised to find herself taking leave to track down a teenaged boy as a favour to a certain widow; and Lech Wicinski, Slough House’s newest member. Readers of Herron’s novella, The Drop will be aware of the alleged misdeed that has landed him here, and is causing the others to keep their distance, despite his protestations of innocence.
Events soon have several of them racing off to Wales despite the predicted heavy snowfall. This leads to some rather radical driving, reluctant huddling together for warmth, encounters with nasty killers, and an exploding barn. An earlobe is bitten off, toes are shot at and some home truths are told.
As always, Lamb is the master of obnoxious insult (in fact, it seems to be rubbing off on his crew: Emma Flyte remarks “I sometimes wonder if Lamb gives you all lessons in smart-arsery”); Roddy Ho continues to remain deluded as to his own importance; Catherine Standish remains a stalwart of comfort and guidance; J.K. Coe maintains his silence; and Shirley Dander, despite passing her anger management course, still barely controls her simmering, sometimes seething, anger.
Again, the dialogue provides plenty of (often quite black) humour and, while this one will incite plenty of guffaws rather than giggles, dedicated readers know that Herron shows his regular characters no mercy: from the first pages it is apparent that some of their number will probably be dead by the last page. The realisation of this by their colleagues is a sober moment that may well cause a lump in the throat.
Di Taverner, now First Desk, apparently has plans for Slough House and the final page will have fans wondering what fate Herron intends for our favourite slow horses. Excellent British spy fiction, as always. -
Slow Horses Head Into The Countryside
I've cheated, I confess, as this was the only book of the Slough House series that I could get my hands on. Like an addict, I had to have my next fix of Mick Herron's Slough House series! So from #1, I've gone to #6 and there's undoubtedly some changes that I've leapfrogged.
However, Roddy Ho is still there and as sociopathic as ever but meets with a very amusing practical joke that still has me in stitches...River Cartwright is mourning his grandfather as the OB has finally kicked the bucket and his antecedents turn up, which adds flesh to his bones.
Jackson Lamb is as notorious as ever; Lady Di as unpleasant and Catherine Standish and Louisa Guy feel more rounded. The new guy, Lech Wicinski feels more like a cold fish so it will be interesting to see how things transpire?
The plot is satisfactory and I was carried along drawing parallels to Steig Larsson's last book of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with which it shares some similarities although I preferred the Nordic noir version, I would have to confess.
All in all, a few more characters, an enlivening unputdownable read and the fix is sufficient, just, till another of the series appears!
