A slow horse is the epithet assigned to the detritus of MI5 who get tasked to work at Slough House. To be sent there you either have to be monumentally bad at your job or have royally cocked things up. It’s basically a punishment detail given out in hopes that the recipient will quit thus avoiding having to actually fire them. So when a young man has been kidnapped and scheduled for execution live on the internet just for the colour of his skin the slow horses are not exactly who you’d hope for as the best option for the rescue.

I picked up this book because I recently watched and thoroughly enjoyed the TV show that was adapted from it. I probably should have given it a bit more time between watching and reading as the show is quite a faithful adaptation of the story so I knew what was about to happen the whole time. While this took away the suspense the story and, in particular, the characters more than carried me through what was a very good spy thriller. ( )

A lot of fun! (Also, a lot of characters!) Reading the 'real' thing might be better than the audiobook version but all in all a great spy story! ( )

catnip for LeCarre fans! ( )

Take a bunch of highly-trained (e.g. you've spent a lot of time and money on them) MI5 personnel who have, nonetheless, effed up big-time (in various ways) so that just firing them isn't an option, what do you do? Put them in Slough House and put them to work doing the most boring of the boring work, not analyzing the data but collecting it for others to analyze (searching for suspicious activity whether on the internet or a real estate transaction etc) Give them a boss who is . . . unfathomable. Create a situation where, suddenly, these losers have a chance to redeem themselves if only in their own hearts and minds. And bingo! I won't give a thing away. And read the book(s) before you watch the tv show(s). ***** ( )

A group of MI5 misfits or just hard luck cases are crammed into one office building until they decide to quit. The office is Slough House. “Where tasks that didn’t matter were performed by people that didn’t care.” But they still have skills, even if a little rusty.

Their boss is Jackson Lamb, “a soft fat rude bastard” “dressed like he’d been thrown through a charity shop window.” He’s a legend and hated by perhaps everyone. He might be the only one who actually wants to be at Slough House.

A young man is kidnapped and threatened with beheading to be broadcast online and Lamb, despite being put out to pasture, is the one to see behind the curtain and understand who’s behind it. His slow horses do their part and Lamb turns the mess to his advantage.

This tenth anniversary edition features a short story featuring Lamb. ( )