Draft:Slow Horses (novel)
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| Author | Mick Herron |
|---|---|
| Language | United Kingdom |
| Series | Slough House |
| Genre | Spy fiction, Thriller, Comedy |
| Publisher | Soho Crime |
Publication date | 2010-06-01 |
| Publication place | England |
| ISBN | 978-1399803052 |
| Followed by | Dead Lions |
Slow Horses is an espionage novel by British writer Mick Herron, published in 2010. It is the first novel in the Slough House series, following River Cartwright and a group of disgraced MI5 agents as they attempt to escape their desk jobs.
Plot
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Principal Characters
[edit]The book utilises third-person limited point of view, with Herron frequently rotating between characters' internal monologues and perspectives.
- River Cartwright, a disgraced MI5 spy who desperately wants to clear his name and prove his place in the organisation.
- Jackson Lamb, an aging Cold-War-era spy who manages the operations of Slough House.
- Diana Taverner, serves as second desk and Head of Operations at MI5.
- Sidonie “Sid” Baker, is the most capable of the agents at Slough House, her reasons for being sent there are unknown.
- Jed Moody, a Slow House agent who formally was a globe trotting, international spy.
- Louisa Guy, an agent who was sent to work at Slough House after she took the fall for a failed operation.
- Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb's assistant who previously served under deceased MI5 Director-General,
Charles Partner.
- Roddy Ho, an arrogant hacker who works at Slough House.
- Min Harper, a Slough House agent who was relegated down the ranks of MI5 after leaving a confidential disk on a train
- Robert Hobden, a conservative journalist whose affiliation with far-right political groups destroyed his career.
- Hassan Ahmed, a university student kidnapped by a group of White Supremicists.
Publication History
[edit]Constable first published Slow Horses in the United Kingdom in 2010.[1] The book was published by Soho Press in the United States.[1]
The initial release of the novel was unsuccessful and Constable decided not to publish any further books in the series.[1] In 2015, John Murray acquired the rights to release the novel in the UK and released a new edition. The book began to find mainstream success after Waterstones named the novel its ‘thriller of the month’ in August 2017.[2][1]
In 2017, Nancy Pearl included Slow Horses on a list of books she recommended on NPR.[2]. Pearl described the book as "great fun" and said "Unlike some series of thrillers or mysteries, it gets better, each book is better than the one before."[3] In response, Soho printed an additional 2,000 copies of the book which sold out in 24 hours; they would go on to sell 20,000 copies that month.[2]
Background
[edit]Herron began the book in 2008.[4]. Before writing Slow Horses, Herron primarily wrote detective fiction whilst he was working in the legal department of an employment-issues research firm.[5] In 2005, Herron was commuting to work when the London Subway Bombings struck.[6] The experience caused Herron to shift from writing detective to spy fiction. While he had previously not felt qualified to write about world events,[5] the bombings made him realise that “to be on the front line, you just have to be in a city. Suddenly, everywhere seems to be a viable target. So that opened the door and allowed me to write about such things.”[7] Herron references the morning during a scene where River Cartwright reflects:
People talked about that day in different ways. Either it was a story about them in which bombs happened, or it was a story about the bombs, and they’d just happened to be there.[8]
Reception
[edit]Writing for The Booklist, Thomas Gaughan said Herron's novel was "filled with acidic wit and engaging misdirection... with enough suspense, double-dealing, and mayhem for thriller devotees; but it's also a wonderfully funny, farcical, deeply cynical skewering of politics, bureaucrats, turf wars, and the Great Game."[9]
On the social cataloging website Goodreads, Slow Horses holds an average rating of 4.01/5 stars from 54,500 reviews.[10]
Adaptations
[edit]An series adaptation of the book premiered on Apple TV+ on 1 April 2022.[11] The series stars Gary Oldman as Lamb, Jack Lowden as River Cartwright and Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Higgins, Charlotte (15 January 2021). "Mick Herron: 'I look at Jackson Lamb and think: My God, did I write that? My mother reads this stuff!'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023.
- ^ a b c Cohen, Ben (7 September 2024). "Nobody Was Reading Him. Now He's the World's Best Spy Writer". The Wall Street Journal – via Proquest.
- ^ Inkseep, Steve; Pearl, Nancy (2017-01-12). "Fulfill Your Reading Resolutions With 6 Books From Librarian Nancy Pearl". NPR.
- ^ "Mick Herron – Interview". SpyWrite. 22 August 2018. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023.
- ^ a b "Is Mick Herron the Best Spy Novelist of His Generation?". The New Yorker. 28 November 2022. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024.
- ^ Pederson, Erik (9 December 2022). "The Book Pages: 'Slow Horses' author Mick Herron says, 'My heart is with those who struggle'". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on 4 August 2024.
- ^ Millen, Robbie (8 June 2019). "Mick Herron, the accidental bestseller". The Times.
- ^ Herron, Mick (2010). Slow Horses. Soho Press. p. 68. ISBN 9781569479018.
People talked about that day in different ways. Either it was a story about them in which bombs happened, or it was a story about the bombs, and they'd just happened to be there.
- ^ Gaughan, Thomas (2010). "Slow Horses". The Booklist (106(17) ed.). Chicago – via Proquest.
- ^ "Slow Horses". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
- ^ "Trailer for new Apple Original espionage drama "Slow Horses", starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman, debuts ahead of global premiere on April 1, 2022". Apple.com. 2 March 2022. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.