With Bad Actors just a few short days away, Im ponder what we might see. Baker seemed the most competent of the gang because she was: she eventually revealed to River that Taverner had posted her to Slough House to keep an eye on him. Chernitsky ambushes Ho on the train and escapes after an altercation with Dander. So, what connects the oligarch with an old rumour of Russian sleeper agents? Because I already know that lurking inside is an intricate plot wrapped around plenty of wit & humour. If Herron has whacked him then I think its a really interesting decision because on one level, his story arc had mostly come to an end anyway (the OB is dead, we know who his dad was and hes dead too) and it does show that no one in Slough House is safe from whacking. Required fields are marked *. He never gifts them glory, barely grants them a tolerable existence and never hesitates to kill one or two of them off if the plot requires it. This novel is a series highlight for me, and went on to win the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award as well as being shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, The British Book Awards and The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.Buy now on Amazon, A North Korean hit squad is conducting a terror operation on British soil, and one particular fly in the ointment is that the plan they are working to is one of the Parks own. Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.Buy now on Amazon. Diana Taverner finds herself making some bad decisions in this novel; not the least her involvement with Peter Judd, who bears more than a little resemblance to our current Prime Minister. I am currently well into Bad Actors desperate to know if certain casualties from this book survived, and even hoping for a tiny spoiler so as to prepare myself for the worst, if that is to be the outcome. And this series is one of my favorites. Questions that we will likely get answered right away in Slough House . He confronts her, and she confesses she was paid off. There are hysterical episodes, ridiculous circumstances hard to accept and poignant moments for good measure. In the seventh installment of this series, Mick Herron returns to the convoluted and devious world of the British Secret Service and the inhabitants of Slough House.These Joes are the disgraced of the secret world, shunted aside and relegated to meaningless tasks that underscore their irrelevance. I also really wanted to see Rivers mum make an appearance and will feel cheated if its just at his funeral. Rebecca recounts that Min was attacked and run over by Pitor and Kyril, and finished off by Chernitsky before his death was staged. Spook secrets were dangerous to friends and foes alike, and the old man had made plenty of both down the years. But there's more to the story than he reveals to Standish: we discover at the end of Slow Horses that Lamb in fact murdered Partner on the orders of David Cartwright, River's grandfather. Roderick, a self-anointed master of online information with a blind spot big enough to encompass all human interactions, spends his days wondering just what he did wrong to end up in Slough House. History Season 1 At an airport, River Cartwright gets ready to board his flight while waiting for someone. The central conceit of the books is that MI5, like any large organisation, needs somewhere to place its most hopeless employees, and this place is Slough House, a building just around the corner from the Barbican Centre. Still, I am broken-hearted and may not be able to finish Bad Actors. Lamb and Taverner will have to work together to maintain MI5s independence, but can they put their history of betrayal and revenge behind them? Lamb theorises that Slough House is going to be blamed for whatever operation Regent's Park is running and be disavowed if it fails. Except as noted, each character has appeared in all seasons so far shown. After locating the photo and evading security, he and Lamb threaten to reveal Taverner's operation to the Director-General and the press. Duncan and Kelly find and untie River, and he is eventually able to convince them of Alexs true identity. When I receive the latest in this series, there is zero chance its going to sit there patiently waiting its turn. David Walmsley as Larry, a member of the Sons of Albion. Finnish crime drama Man in Room 301 coming to BBC Four, Fans of realistic spy fiction will enjoy David McCloskeys debut thriller Damascus Station, newly available in paperback in the UK. Sid Baker - One of the most shocking reveals in Slow Horses was the fate of Sid Baker who a fellow agent sent to spy on Slough House but who River slowly got to know throughout the course of the book. (SH) Cartwright, River - Young, white, fair hair, grey eyes and a mole on his upper lip. Bye, Struan. Larry arrives at a seaport in Harwich, but is shot dead by "The Dogs" on the orders of Tierney, who plant a weapon on his corpse to justify the killing. Well, as Jackson Lamb was delighted to point out, they actually didn't. She claims to have an operative embedded with the Sons of Albion who organised the kidnapping, but will also facilitate the rescue. Whats Diana Taverner like as First Desk? Believing he was targeted also, Lamb investigates Rebecca, the driver, and discovers she has connections to Russia and previously lived in Vladivostok. Judd booted Hobden to the curb and Taverner's chief dog Nick Duffy literally pushed him over it into the path of oncoming traffic. If you aren't reading the Slough House spy novels yet, what are you waiting for? I also think that Louisa has really stepped up to be MVP in terms of spy ability so it would be good to see her continue to move front and centre, especially as there will doubtless be some kind of additional call back to those diamonds and her affair with Min. Thanks to adept storytelling, readers are aware before Lamb (or is that impossible?) Slough House is the seventh book in the brilliantly unique Slow Horses British spy thriller series - soon to be seen on TV in a star-studded adaptation. But if you've read any others, and liked them, you'll like this one. It has been a while since I read one but watching the first series on TV reminded me just how good these books are (and I do prefer them as books). Which he is, but a thoroughly relatable one. DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK. Skripal and his daughter were badly poisoned, but eventually recovered. River Cartwright, who is also ambitious but doesn't get the same favor from their grumpy boss, is often jealous of the fact that Sid gets (relatively) more glamorous assignments than him. Lamb, already aware of this, had notified David Cartwright that he was another potential target due to his complicity in Partner's death. Slough House is the one you want to find out about River. Haunted office manager Catherine is seen attending AA meetings and is regularly taunted by Lamb about alcohol. So I just read it all in one somewhat elongated gulp. I'm totally invested in the world of the slow horses of Slough House since starting the series in 2017. Im hopeful well get some closure on that dangling Sid plot line. But hes also brilliant, and much sharper, it turns out, than Diana Taverner herself. Lamb suggests that Krymov lied about Pashkin being Nevskys representative, with the younger Russian likely being his competitor. Part of the popularity of the series lies in the fact these books simply make you feel good. I was very disappointed in the ending of this novel. Their boss, Jackson Lamb is still keeping his team busy with pointless and unproductive assignments: following up social media absconders (#gonequiet), failures to pay fines or potential safe-houses for non-friendlies. How is River handling patricide? Slovenly, rude, and apparently drunk most of the time. Right from the first book, Herron shows hes not afraid to kill off his creations and some of those deaths hit very hard indeed. Reviewing and collecting spy fiction and nonfiction. River is then instructed to deliver it to the service's Regent's Park Headquarters, much to his surprise. Any trail his dead grandfather had left, no one was going to follow but him. Slow Horses ending explained: Did they save Hassan? These are such fun books that I have to drop everything and read them as soon as each one comes out. Danders character arc, for example, can only really be seen through the prism of her developing friendship with Longridge. Min wasnt killed by her car, and she was not driving. Things get pretty close, and Curly is stopped right in the nick of time before he murders the young student. Follow I Read, Therefore I Blog on WordPress.com. yes reading in order is key and just stack them up next to your bed and dont expect to move for 10 days. With a seasoned spy for a grandfather, his star in MI5 was expected to ascend into the stratosphere. Theyre worth reading in sequence. If that was happening, River needed to stop it. Im skeptical. What would be the point?. River goes undercover in France to try to find the source while the other slow horses try to work the angle from London. Charles Partner was, in fact, a double agent at the top of MI5, and had been getting away with selling Britain's secrets for years thanks to the befuddled ignorance of his alcoholic assistant, Catherine Standish. "[18] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Meanwhile, Claude Whelan, current First Desk, is caught between a weak PM and a populist MP flushed from a successful Brexit referendum. When a Russian operative is killed, they think the slow horses who now appear to be off-the-books were responsible. Theyve never needed to kill us, said Lamb. Unlike the rest of the team, the reason for Lambs demotion to Slough House is never revealed. They had their own neo-Nazi reasons for doing this but it turned out that the plot was initiated by MI5 Second Desk "Lady" Di Taverner (Kristin Scott-Thomas) as a false-flag operation to earn her Brownie points in her boss' absence. My carefully organized reading list just took a direct hit. He was raised by his grandfather, David, a service legend, and grew up hearing stories of his time in the service. Lamb meets with Nikolai Katinsky, an ex-KGB agent and defector. Despite giving every indication of wanting his team of slow horses to fail spectacularly, he never gives up on a Joe (spy), and its this trait which makes him such a popular character. It is revealed that Moe (real name Alan Black) was Taverner's mole, but was found out and murdered by Curly, who then fled with Zeppo, Larry and Hassan. [9] The cast was rounded out in December 2020 with the additions of Olivia Cooke, Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden. This series is perfect for those that want their humor dark and smart. Plus he was the normal one. The main series development is the return of Sid Baker, which was first teased in LONDON RULES but finally Herron reveals that yes, she did survive SLOW HORSES and has spent the last few years recuperating in a Service facility in the Lake District. We soon discover that Lamb is playing a deception game and that River has instead brought the O.B. She was in comms at The Park before she laid out a co-worker, and also has addiction issues. printed out and left in a dead drop in . - The most shocking thing coming out of Slough House was the poisoning and apparent death of River Cartwright in the final moments of the novel. She directed MI5 undercover agent Alan Black to infiltrate the group and organise the kidnapping with the intention of then miraculously finding and capturing the gang and freeing Hassan, who, conveniently, was the nephew of Pakistan's Defence Minister, someone it would be useful to impress. However, when two Britons came across the perfume bottle in which the nerve agent had been carried, one of them died. She persists with extracting a promise from first Di Taverner then Jackson Lamb that they will tell her what really happened. One could certainly be excused for not looking at Lambbetween his predictably terrible farts, his smoking and spitting, and his disgustingly soiled clothing and office, hes both camouflaged and repellent. This, like Real Tigers, is one of the more action-packed adventures in the series, and one where several earlier plot lines are resolved to move the bigger story forwards. You probably do need to have read the earlier books to understand the character dynamics, and previous events are referenced throughout - we listened to the audiobook and The Cats Father, who hasnt read the previous books, was able to follow but missed a lot of the jokes & plot points. Her most recent novel is The Long Shadow (Five Star Publishing, 2018). 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