Slow Horses

Slough House, Book 1

De: Mick Herron

Narrado por: Gerard Doyle

Slough House is a dumping ground for British intelligence agents who've screwed up cases in any number of ways - by leaving a secret file on a train or blowing a surveillance. River Cartwright, one such "slow horse", is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself.

Is the victim whom 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 has his own agenda.

©2010 Mick Herron (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Narrator lacking

Great story and characters. This narrator has a lovely speaking voice but cannot change it from character to character. As scenes change with no preamble, this lack of voice change makes it difficult at times to know who is talking and gets confusing.

Oh. So. Good!

Took me a chapter or two to get accustomed to this author's style and humor, but once there I could not stop listening.

A bit burned out on the murder-mystery-cop genre (I've gone through all of Penny and Galbraith over the last year) I was looking for something different... And found it.

An organization full of discarded secret service operatives (stuck in useless jobs because of career mistakes, miss-steps and "character flaws") has much still to offer solving a political kidnapping.

The characters are not all necessarily likeable, but never not compelling. The plot has great twists and the humor is so dry... And fabulous.

I'm on to Book 2 and can only hope it's as good as this one!

I really do recommend.

It’s no wonder:

It’s no wonder why they made this into a series on tv. I loved it.

Slow Start

Many times I was ready to stop reading this book the first third of the way through. it was just not holding my interest. but then it got a lot more interesting and the book was a 5 star the last half. I'm debating if I want to read the next book in the series because of the slow start here, but I will probably give it a try in the future.

Quite interesting

This was a tad slow getting started, as is often the case with a story with so many characters. It’s worth hanging in there, though. Well written, and it finally all ties together in the end.

A challenging read

Way to many POV shifts. Hard to keep things straight or to have characters to root for. I had to force myself to finish the book.

Great story, But the narration needs work

The stary was fantastic. But the narrator needs to work on his voices and scene changes.

Wow! Smart, complex & engaging

Really loved this book. A bit of a slow start, but then I couldn’t get enough. Twist after plausible twist. I’ve got to read the whole series.

Loved it!

I’ve been meaning to listen to the Mick Heron books since watching the show on AppleTV and I absolutely loved the book and the narrators take on the characters. Brilliantly written, wonderfully read allowing the characters to come alive and shine. I’m already on Book 3!

Good Concept....

....buttressed by good writing. I liked the notion of failed intel agents being shuffled off to a building unto themselves
with the hope they might be inclined to resign. Each has a record of declared incompetence for a diffuse array of
reasons. And all know why they are there. Their circumstances do not inspire any degree of comity.

This is my first Herron novel, and the level of intrigue is appealing. One must pay close attention to the narration,
as settings alternate without due warning. The author keeps the tension high with a cleverly constructed story
line.

I shall look forward to more character development as the series unfolds. The book was a pleasant surprise.