Londyńskie zasady

The fifth of Mick Herron's Slough House novels begins with gunmen arriving in a sun-baked village and proceeding to slaughter a number of the inhabitants. It's a shocking, brilliantly written opener with the location of the village remaining unconfirmed until the very last sentence. It's a really jarring moment.

Herron is on top form here, the humour blacker than ever, the satire sharp and the cast of characters fully realised, from the puffed-up, Farage-like MP Denis Gimball to the weak and flawed Secret Service chief Claude Whelan. But the real focus is, as usual, the perennial screw-ups of Slough House. Techno-geek fantasist Roderick Ho gets embroiled in a honey trap, narrowly avoids two attempts on his life and still thinks he's the hero. Meanwhile terrorist atrocities are ramping up pressure on the Service - are they connected, and are they running an old Service playbook? If so who gave it to them?
And what's next?

The other Slow Horses attempt to unravel the mystery, despite supposedly being locked down by Emma Flyte (head of the Service's “Dogs”, the internal enforcers), who ends up cuffed to a chair while Jackson Lamb sends his minions off to try and stop a possible assassination. This does not go well. The Lamb of London Rules is, if anything, even more decrepit than in previous books - drinking heavily, smoking like a chimney (and coughing like a lung is about to come up), with personal hygiene that leaves a lot (if not everything) to be desired.

But, as ever, Lamb seems to know how to be in the right place at the right time, what strings to pull, and who to blackmail to get what he wants. Which is mostly to be left alone with his empire of losers.

Herron keeps the pace moving and the final couple of chapters are really quite tense with various Slow Horses again trying to prevent an act of terrorism. And even if things seem to work out Lamb's way there's always a fly in the ointment. In this case Service Second Desk “Lady” Di Taverner, who would rather Lamb and his minions were a distant memory. She sows a little seed of poison at the end and it will be interesting to see how it germinates in the next novel, Joe Country.

There's a sense of Herron putting all his ducks in a row as we perhaps near the end of the series. The novel after Joe Country is simply called Slough House, which is a nice symmetry to the first, Slow Horses. So maybe we won't be be in the company of Jackson Lamb for much longer? Enjoy him while you can.

Outrageous and I love it for that. There's dark humour but there's also outlandish hijinks and I am here for the mix. Don't get me wrong, this is a novel about failed spies, a number are unlikeable and most are haunted in one way or another. My memory is that the last book in the series was particularly heavy (hence my long break between books), and I appreciate that this one had a bit more silly among the cloak and dagger and human tragedy.
Flawed individuals all, but as much as Jackson Lamb is abrasive and dogged in reminding the ‘slow horses' of their faults, the author manages to display some mistakes in a compassionate light. The aspiring politician who fell from grace because he wanted to help his brother, the ex-con who was provided a chance to do better and only fell into folly because he was trying to help. I was particularly struck by Herron's wording prefacing the memorial service scene: “This is what London and its sister cities have learned: that hate crime pollutes the soul, but only the souls of those who commit it. When those who mourn stand together, their separate chimes sounding in unison if only for a moment, they remain unstained.” 
Despite the metric ton of cynicism, this book falls into the grand tradition of a mystery with people trying to do good up against those who have decided to do bad. Whether the ones doing good ARE good is another matter. 
This entry is definitely an ensemble piece. If you'd asked me after the first book who the main character is, I'd have said River Cartwright. Subsequently, each book has focused a bit more on different characters, but I think the main thread is the forceful personality of Jackson Lamb. Wouldn't want to meet him, but happy to have him corral the struggling spooks and solve the puzzles. I'd say if you find Hawthorne from the Horowitz mysteries infuriating in his attitudes, you're not going to like reading about Lamb. Sincerely hoping Roddy learns a valuable lesson, and that Shirley doesn't backslide too far. I like the breadcrumbs sprinkled for River and Catherine, revelations that could lead to further developments in future books. 😉

Some details reflecting the time of publication and prevailing attitudes towards certain minority groups, though not necessarily the views of the author, because I feel like they need their own warning:
1) the terrorists being indoctrinated, incompetent young men from North Korea 
2) the model minority Muslim mayoral candidate turning out to be a drinker who pays for illegal IDs for a not-dead radicalized relative to disappear without any acknowledgement of any wrongdoing
3) a politician having his career threatened via evidence that he chose to wear traditionally feminine clothing/did drag in a club, because the one threatening knows it wouldn't be accepted by his constituents, even if it's acknowledged there's nothing wrong with it, because the politician has some pretty repugnantly conservative views in other areas
4) Man with acknowledged mental health concerns presented as ‘possibly a psychopath' who gets a bit chipper after killing someone on purpose or accidentally 

⚠️animal death, racism, Islamophobia, terrorism, drug addiction, dementia, ableism