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London Rules

The bestselling thrillers that inspired the hit Apple TV+ show Slow Horses (Slough House Thriller 5)

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London Rules

By: Mick Herron
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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*Pre-order Clown Town, the ninth novel in Mick Herron's Slough House series, now*

*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*

'Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation' Val McDermid

'The best thriller writer in Britain today' Sunday Express

****

At Regent's Park, the Intelligence Service HQ, new First Desk Claude Whelan is learning the job the hard way.

Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.

Over at Slough House, the last stop for washed up spies, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - making a bad situation much, much worse.

'Dazzlingly inventive' Sunday Times©2018 Mick Herron Crime Thrillers Espionage Political Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Thriller Witty Mystery
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Critic reviews

The new spy master
The new king of the spy thriller
The best modern British spy series
Dazzingly inventive. Superbly orchestrated . . . Lamb - the most fascinating and irresistible thriller series hero to emerge since Jack Reacher
He's been called the heir to Len Deighton - and Mick Herron's latest mordantly funny espionage novel only backs that up
London Rules confirms Mick Herron as the greatest comic writer of spy fiction in the English language, and possibly all crime fiction
Le Carré looks sugar-coated next to the acid Slough House novels . . . as a master of wit, satire, insight and that very English trick of disguising heartfelt writing as detached irony before launching a surprise assault on the reader's emotions, Herron is difficult to overpraise
Addictive . . . I cannot recommend these books strongly enough
The fifth instalment of the award-winning Jackson Lamb series is witty, sardonic and laugh-out-loud funny yet also thrilling and thought-provoking . . . Herron has often been compared with spy thriller greats John le Carré and Len Deighton but it is time he was recognised in his own right as the best thriller writer in Britain today. In a series that never lets its fans down, London Rules is the best instalment yet
It is, as ever, a joy to return to this world: there is a warm, wise, amused depth to Herron's writing, which shines a stark light on the atrocities he describes. He's also horribly funny
Superb new Jackson Lamb thriller
Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation
This year's discoveries for me were the spy novels of Mick Herron . . . Herron's Jackson Lamb books are mesmerisingly good, combining the best double, triple and quadruple-crossing traditions of Len Deighton and early Le Carré with the mordant humour of Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels
London Rules is well up to the high standard of its predecessors, with the usual mixture of jokes and jeopardy at Slough House, the place where MI5 careers go to die under the dubious auspices of the wonderfully repulsive Jackson Lamb
Fortunately, Mick Herron seems to write a new Jackson Lamb novel every year. His latest in this series of wonderful and witty books about the more than eccentric head of a branch of MI5, London Rules, came out on time. I read the first four of these thrillers in a couple of weeks last year. The latest is well up to Herron's usual standards
London Rules by Mick Herron is the latest - and so far the best - bulletin from that twilight home for burned-out spies by the Barbican, Slough House . . . If you haven't read Herron yet you should
This is modern British spy fiction at its brilliant best; taut, tense, quirky, funny and thrilling
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliantly narrated by Sean Barrett who brings the likes of the wonderfully awful Lamb to life. A tale of ambition and backstabbing, guilt and weaknesses, and disrespect for rules and manners. Read and love it. I've enjoyed them all and lived with the tackiness of slow horses and their brilliant persistence in the face of immovable bureaucracy.

The grubby side of the an almost secret service

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Sean Barrett has a very deep voice which growls perfectly and yet lightens to represent younger or more feminine voices. Mick Herrons language rolls along and conjures up landscapes and personalities in detail but the dialogue, especially that of Lamb is dry humour at its grungiest. I laughed out loud more than once.

The reading together with the language is a joy

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So - Mick Herron has written a brilliant series and this is another superbly plotted read. The story is excellent and the narration is outstanding. I can only recommend the entire series to you and advise you to read them all in order and in quick succession. They are all dry, laconic, exciting and very, very funny. Question: who would play Jackson Lamb in a movie or TV series? Brian Cox? Not my problem but I would love to see the books filmed.

Cover your back...

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love the humour, narration superb....Jackson Lamb is just a great character looking forward to the next.

gotta love Lamb

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I find these Slow Horses books slightly addictive, this is probably the funniest of them -- dark funny mind you.

Funny, dark, slightly addictive

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