7 July 2023|Thoughts about
I've been so concentrated on golf reading (and playing) that I'm well behind on my other reading this year. But it's summer holiday time now and my kids are off school (reducing my time golfing, lol) so I'm trying to catch up. I've been unable to really get into 1984 so moved over to something else for a while. I owe my old friend Donald Brown a debt of gratitude for first introducing this series to me.
This is the third book in the Slough House series, and it's fantastic. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it and just want to give a flavour for those who might be interested. Having really enjoyed the first two books, I was a bit slow to get stuck into the third. Herron's style of writing demonstrates quite clearly that I've got a lot of thinking to do if I ever plan to turn my blogging into novel writing (haha, no chance!). His descriptive style and the way he builds his characters is just superb. Often times if I watch a TV or movie adaptation of a book it can fail to live up to the mental images I have of the characters involved, but AppleTV's casting of Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is just perfect. You can almost smell him (if you've read the books you'll know what I'm getting at). Having let my AppleTV subscription lapse, I've not seen series two, but if they keep going the way they did with the first book, viewers are in for a treat.
The Slough House series is a set of spy thrillers about a department full of rejects from MI5, headed up by Jackson Lamb, an old-school Cold War vintage spy whose background is shrouded in mystery through the first three books. His department is made up of agents who have messed up in the "real" service and have been put into Slough House to see out their time. Easier than sacking them. They all think they can one day get back into MI5 "proper". A bit like a shop assistant once told me when I asked for larger trousers "The problem with living in optimism sir, is that eventually you have to face up to reality".
Unlike some other spy thrillers, the great thing about these is that the characters are so imperfect. There's no James Bond here, more Basildon Bond (for those who remember Russ Abbot). It's normal, it's dirty, it's messy and chaotic. It's more real as a result and it makes for compelling reading. There's great humour through the books too. Not jokes as such, just the way Herron builds the "banter" between characters and in the descriptions of their behaviours. I had lots of good chuckles throughout this one. If you've read and enjoyed Christopher Brookmyer, then I think you'll enjoy the style of humour in these books too.
Three books in and I've built a real affinity with the characters. I want to see what they get up to next, who is going to get into trouble, will any of them ever make it back into full service for MI5, will we learn more about Jackson Lamb and how he came to be head of Slough House?
I see that AppleTV has already commissioned books three and four. If you prefer watching to reading, then you're in for a treat. If you are looking for some books to read over the summer, then I can't recommend these highly enough.
Moving straight on to book 4
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