Slow Horses (Book 1 Of Jackson Lamb Thriller)

Description: Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 'The UK's new spy master' Sunday Times You don't stop being a spook just because you're no longer in the game. Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent's Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb's misfit crew of highly trained joes don't run ops, they push paper. But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a 'slow horse'. A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net. And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch . . .

Review: For something really gripping, head for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb series, in which a sidelined spook and his cohorts battle their way back to the centre of a life of espionage. Begin with Slow Horses and enjoy -- Alex Clark * Observer * I was delighted to discover Mick Herron's riotous Slow Horses series about the black sheep of MI5 -- Nick Cohen * Big Issue * The first of his series about MI5 and a character called Jackson Lamb, one of the great monsters of modern fiction. He's a wonderfully cynical writer and there's a lot of dark humour in it. I'm not clever enough to write this sort of thing -- Bernard Cornwell * Daily Express * I was delighted to discover that this is merely the first in a captivating series -- Christopher Brookmyre * Herald * A funny, stylish, satirical, gripping story * Guardian * The most enjoyable spy novel in years * Mail on Sunday * With his poet's eye for detail, his comic timing and relish for violence, Herron fills a gap that has been yawning ever since Len Deighton retired * Daily Telegraph * Surely among the finest British spy fiction of the past 20 years * Metro * If you read one spy novel this year, read Real Tigers. Better still, read the whole series * Andrew Taylor, The Spectator * Mick Herron is the real deal * Irish Times * The John le Carre of our generation * Val McDermid * The best modern British spy series * Daily Express * The finest new crime series this Millennium * Mail on Sunday * As a master of wit, satire, insight . . . Herron is difficult to overpraise * Daily Telegraph * Jackson Lamb - the most fascinating and irresistible thriller series hero to emerge since Jack Reacher * Sunday Times * The new spy master * Evening Standard * Praise for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb series: * . *

Author Biography: Mick Herron is a novelist and short story writer whose books include the Jackson Lamb series, the first of which - the Steel-Dagger nominated Slow Horses - has been described as the 'most enjoyable British spy novel in years'. The second Jackson Lamb novel, Dead Lions, won the 2013 CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, and was picked by the Sunday Times as one of the best 25 crime novels of the past five years. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.