Slow Horses

Slough House, Book 1

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it’s threatened that he’ll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem him.

Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers’ connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda….

©2010 Mick Herron (P)2010 Isis Publishing Ltd

A Literate Thriller!

Bored with Connelly? Move across the pond and enjoy this group of misfits spy's as they try and best MI-5 sinister machinations who put them together into the SLOW HOUSE for their past sins against the organization. Literate & entertaining!

A BUREAUCRATS WORSE NIGHTMARE

What did you love best about Slow Horses?

Set in London in the dark troubled british security services, the senior management attempts to save the life of the organization. A small group of failures in the service, who have done something bad or have been relegated to the minors for offending someone is suddenly at the center of a major crisis that could bring down not only the service but the government itself. The entire book is woven together in such a way that every page manages at least one surprise. The bad guys are brutal but there are worse bad people who are suave and hidden. With a secret dogging each of the sympathetic heroes, one is never confident that the decisions these types make will make things better or worse. In this aspect, it is very true to life. The writer helps keep each of the characters separate and one must follow each of their development as the crisis deepens and resolution seems impossible.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There are several that stand out. This is the virtue of the book. I enjoyed the bad guys who were horrible and the good guys who were sometimes pathetic but the boss manages to keep a disparate group together despite the obvious despair plaguing each of them.I suppose the boss in his sloppy idiocyncratic ways as he manages to get the most out of his hapless mob of helpers.

Which character – as performed by Sean Barrett – was your favorite?

The protagonist.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Any additional comments?

A delightful audio book well presented that will keep you up reading late at night.

Great fun

I would agree with other reviewers that you have to plough through about the first hour of this book before it really sucks you in. But once it does, you are hooked.
I found this book original, fast paced, and funny. I think it's pretty lacking in character development ( to the point where I had difficulty keeping some of the minor players straight) but it was so charming I didn't much care. This is the only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars.
The narration is excellent.

How Did I Miss This???

I really enjoy mysteries and political thrillers and I can't remember when I have enjoyed a novel this much. The plot grabs you from the very outset and just keeps you within its grips throughout. The narration was spot-on and enhanced the story. Looking forward to starting the next Mick Herron novel.

Start of a great series.

What made the experience of listening to Slow Horses the most enjoyable?

It's a very interesting if somewhat silly premise. MI5 agents that make "mistakes" are relegated to Slough House. They're deemed too stupid and dangerous to be "achievers" (the good spies) so they are instead trapped in kind of a purgatory, stuck doing the tedious and menial paperwork associated with covert operations. And, of course, bored spies get into all kinds of trouble. :)

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably the Slow Horses' leader, Lamb, because he's so multi-dimensional. And very funny.

Have you listened to any of Sean Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I could listen to Mr. Barrett recite the phone book and be very entertained. He is, simply, one of the best. This may be an instance where the performance was better than the material. I've sampled the next one in the series and it's nowhere near as good. I may actually skip to the third which has another of my favorites doing the job - Gerard Doyle.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue. I will say that it is a little disjointed and I found myself having to replay sections so I really grasped what I was hearing. But then I read while I run so sometimes I get distracted. There's a lot of moving parts in Slow Horses - it's not a book you can breeze through without paying full attention. I think the characters are all very interesting so it will be fun getting to know them in the following books.

Any additional comments?

N/A

Best Narrator

Love this story, tried a sample with a different narrator but Sean Barrett makes magic. Totally recommend

Le Carre's Heir Apparent

You know those books where immediately after you finish it, you think, "I hope this is the beginning of a series!" Yeah, me neither. Except I felt that way about "Slow Horses." Dismissing it for months because of the title (horses = wild west = yawn) After a spate of unwise, underwhelming book choices, I finally read this novel's description and gave it a try. Well, as they say, 'even a blind pig finds a truffle every once in awhile,' and I found a treasure in "Slow Horses." The title is a wordplay and the pejorative term used to describe those British intelligence officers who have somehow messed up just enough to take themselves off the MI5 fast track but not quite enough to get fired. In author Mick Herron's words, (Slough House) "serves as an administrative oubliette where alongside a pre-digital overflow of paperwork, a post-useful crew of misfits may be stored and left to gather dust."

You can see the vein of gold waiting to be mined right there: the back story of each disgraced officer, what they reveal to each other, how they accept their lot, the painful interactions with MI5 high flyers when their duties involve an errand to Regent's Park. Add to that the kidnapping of a British national with foreign roots and we're off and running for an enthralling ride of intrigue. It is tempting to agree with the other excellent reviews describing this book as full of 'twists and turns.' But in an effort to say something new, I'll describe it as a book with ongoing revelations that cause the reader to think, "Oh, so that means...." As the story progresses, details about each character emerge and they are always smart and they always make sense. The head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb, is an acerbic, vulgar "anti-Smiley" who lives less in his head than George Smiley does, but is just as old school in his fierce loyalty to those agents entrusted to him.

Narrator Sean Barrett delivers the story well and without distraction."Slow Horses" contains portions of intense dialog so being able to differentiate the speakers is crucial and Barrett does this well.

Back to the series idea. I'm picky and have probably shot myself in the foot by avoiding some great reads just because I've seen them in airport bookstores. I'm not proud of my literary pretensions, but I believe they have protected me from excessive eye rolling and exasperation over the years. I'll immediately pounce on a Dalgliesh mystery from P.D. James, a Wexford novel from Rendell, and an Inspector Gamache from Penny. Other series? Wary as a cat. However, a book like "Slow Horses" leaves me hungry to read more novels involving this great cast of characters. So, Mr. Herron, it's been decided: a series it shall be. Write on.

We're all a bit slow, aren't we?

I envisioned a marvelous flowerbed, right in that weedy corner of the yard. I wanted it, but was dreading the prospect of digging up the ground. Turning the soil, digging out the weeds and grass, adding compost and mulch, prepping the soil. My least favorite part.

So this book was chosen to keep me company. Something entertaining and light.

The story started out slow. Frankly, if I hadn't been stuck in the yard anyway, I might have stopped listening. Then about an hour in, I found myself laughing.But in that not quite funny but sort of wincing way--when the joke is on you and it's a bit painful.

And I stopped playing in the dirt. Rewound. And listened again.

That was my introduction to Slough House and Mick Herron. Underrated. Under the radar. Magnificently, awesomely human.

These are the stories of heroes who have dared greatly and failed spectacularly. And survived. Banned to a boring, mundane, useless existence. Except once or twice, they get to secretly save the world.

Just keep listening

I agree with the other reviewers that after the "slough" start, the book pays off with absorbing action and characters. It's a thriller that avoids the shallow, formulaic hero and spunky/beautiful, etc. heroine. The characters themselves take as many unexpected but well grounded turns as the plot and one of the most repellent characters becomes the most admired. (He also has the best lines, making this book a good listen for the humor alone.) Even the parts that I didn't find believable did not detract from my enjoyment of the book as it progressed.

The narrator can make or break a book and Barrett's edgy reading was perfect.

Excellent, one of my favorites

This is one of my favorite downloads ever (frequent listener, mostly crime fiction, for about 6 years). I didn't find the set-up to be slow... The author dove-tailed the description of a band of quirky characters with the set-up to the main storyline and when the main action gets going, you're fully engrossed. There was humor, suspense, great characters... all well-done. I also liked how the story wasn't about another spy trying to save the world.. the crime in question stays "small", with bigger ramifications, but still within reasonable bounds. Really, I wished it had been longer. (or that there might be some sequels?) Finally, narration seemed right-on to me, but I'm not British, so can be fooled in that regard. Highly recommended.