‘Horse’ Whisperer Herron Concocts Spicy Spy Story

By Michael Malone

Set in London, “Slow Horses” is a spy thriller with dashes of wit. Written by Mick Herron, it tells the story of Slough (rhymes with cow) House – a building where MI5 agents, who are similar to FBI agents, are sent to work after they’ve botched a mission.

All the exciting MI5 stuff goes down at Regent’s Park headquarters, while Slough House gets the busy work, such as sorting through a person-of-interest’s trash, as the hapless agents punch the clock, grumble and moan and count the days until retirement.

Jackson Lamb runs Slough House. He is one saturnine fellow, constantly belittling the so-called Slow Horses who work out of Slough House. He’s also a crafty MI5 veteran with a few tricks up his sleeve and a spine of steel.

Published in 2010, the book looks at the kidnapping of a young man named Hassan. The ultra-right-wing terrorists who nab him threaten to cut his head off by a certain deadline, while drawing attention to an issue they deem critical – the increasing number of people of color in the U.K.

MI5, being MI5, has an undercover agent in the terrorist group, known as Sons of Albion. The spy chiefs see it as an op that, given a favorable end result, will enhance relations with Pakistan, as Hassan’s uncle is a prominent military figure there.

Exciting stuff.

Herron slowly introduces a half-dozen of the Slow Horses, including River, who ended up at Slough House after he was duped by a rival agent on a practice mission involving a would-be subway bombing; Catherine, whose battles with alcohol and issues stemming from a very traumatic incident on the job banished her to Slough House; and Roderick, a brilliant, antisocial hacker who isn’t quite sure how or why he ended up there.

Much as September 11 encouraged many Americans to undergo careers in law enforcement and the military, the July 2005 Underground bombing in London, known as 7/7, has a profound effect on several MI5 members. It also influences the Sons of Albion, who want revenge.

The book can be slow at times, the way a spy stakeout often means hours of sitting around before a few minutes of action. But it’s deftly plotted, with a lively cast of characters. And Herron has done his homework, far as I can tell, in depicting life in MI5, known as “the Service.”

He offers lots of lingo. Besides the Service, MI5 is known as “The Five.” Its foot soldiers are known as “Dogs.” The Regent’s Park headquarters is, simply, “The Park.”

MI5 boss Diana Taverner is “Lady Di.”

“If Moscow rules meant watch your back, London rules meant cover your arse,” he writes. “Moscow rules had been written on the streets, but London rules were devised in the corridors of Westminster, and the short version read: someone always pays. Make sure it isn’t you. Nobody knew that better than Jackson Lamb. And nobody played it better than Di Taverner.”

Herron adeptly juxtaposes two vital scenes, switching the narrative from one, to the other, back to the first, and back to the other, at a few opportune times. Midway through the book, he does this with Jackson Lamb meeting Taverner for a covert, way off-the-record conversation near a canal, while an ultra-conservative thought leader known as Hobden has a tense chat with political figure PJ Judd at Judd’s Islington townhouse.

As the book winds down, Herron does it again with Lamb again in an anxious meeting with Taverner at The Park, and Hassan battling with his captors as they prepare to ax his head off.

Herron writes of Lamb and Taverner negotiating near the canal: “It reminded him of darker days; of missions you might not come back from. He’d always come back from them, obviously, but there were others who hadn’t.”

While I did wish Lamb would say something positive about someone, just once, he’s a complicated and thrilling character.

“Slow Horses” has a 3.98 rating, out of 5, on GoodReads. “Suspense, spycraft, dry wit and vulgar humor are all well-deployed in this satisfying work by Mr. Herron, whose style can accommodate everything from a tough action scene to a lyrical elegy,” said The Wall Street Journal.

Financial Times said, “Herron’s morbidly witty backdrop hosts incisive storytelling with a rich mix of engaging characters.”

“Slow Horses” has had three seasons on Apple TV Plus, with Gary Oldman playing Jackson Lamb. The show is a hit, and Apple has ordered seasons four and five.

Herron has a big batch of novels in the “Slough House” series, including “Dead Lions,” “Real Tigers” and “Spook Street.”

In the preface to “Slow Horses,” he talks about commuting to London before his career as an author took place, and riding the bus, stuck in traffic, past a nondescript office building. Herron found himself imagining what sort of workers toiled in the grim building, and Slough House was hatched.

“Good spies infiltrate volcanic hideaways, or blast off into space, but bad ones need their own journeys, their own destinations,” he writes. “Bad spies, I decided, could go to Slough House.”

Slow horses, for its part, came from a Don Winslow novel Herron read called “The Winter of Frankie Machine.” The book features a gambler who is always broke, because “he has a particular fondness for slow horses.”

Journalist Michael Malone lives in Hawthorne with his wife and two children.