Joe Country

Armed with CWA Gold and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, Herron takes us back to Slough House, where superannuated MI5-ers get marooned. But they're not dead yet, as Slough head Jackson Lamb sends out his troubled spies to settle a score.

May 6, 2019
Herron’s enjoyable sixth Slough House novel (after 2018’s London Rules) offers a jaundiced look at espionage in the Brexit age. Jackson Lamb is in charge of Slough House, the decrepit London building where MI5 operatives end up because of a botched mission, alcohol abuse, or simply stepping on the wrong toes. At one point, Lamb tells his crew of misfits: “You lot keep your heads down, do what you’re told, and quietly die of boredom, and everyone’s happy as an Oxfam worker at a sex party. But start making waves and there are shit storms waiting to happen.” Lamb is proven right when Louisa Guy, one of his staff, is contacted by Clare, the widow of Min Harper, Louisa’s former colleague and lover. Clare asks Louisa to find her missing 17-year-old son, Lucas. This simple task turns into a deadly game of blackmail, treachery, and spy vs. spy, played out in the freezing Welsh countryside. Droll dialogue, characters who wear their foibles proudly, and observations on the politics of potential vested interest in national security keep the pages turning. Herron solidifies his place as one of Britain’s top spy novelists. Agent: Juliet Burton, Juliet Burton Literary. (U.K.)

May 15, 2019
British teenager Lucas Harper is missing, and his mum asks Clare Addison for help. That's sensible because Clare belongs to a wing of MI5 with many sneaky ways to hunt someone. But things get sticky. Turns out Clare and Lucas' father?he's dead now?were having an affair. Both were assigned to Slough House, where disgraced spies get dumped, those whose careers have gone "straight to DVD." Then author Herron catches up on the blighted lives of the various agents working out of Slough House. This long sequence will be very welcome to those familiar with Herron's five earlier Slough novels, but newcomers might feel like they've accidentally crashed somebody else's family reunion. But back to the main plot: Mum was right to pick Clare, who finds traceable internet connections from Lucas' Fitbit, and the trail leads to a fiery scene in Wales. A solid thriller buoyed as always by Herron's mordant humor. Why does the boss prefer the predigital era? Because you can't break a man with "a rolled-up copy of the internet."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)