Since I’m being cruelly tortured by being forced to wait a whole long week between episodes for the new season I’ve decided to go back and read the first book in the Slough House series. I’m sure waiting patiently is part of MI5 spy training, probably real advanced stuff.
It is here we first meet Jackson Lamb and his motley collection of ‘slow horses’. Each one has disgraced themselves in some spectacular way and needs to be relegated somewhere they can’t do any more damage to either wait out the rest of their career or give up. All of them though are convinced that if they had just one more chance to get back into the action they could redeem themselves. Bless their messy little hearts.
It’s been long enough that I only vaguely remembered what the plot of this first book should be, which involves a kidnapping that might or might not be what it appears, so it was just a nice reminder of how terrifyingly efficient Lamb is. Like a big old spider staring at you from its web in the corner of the room- if you don’t bother him he won’t bother you. Lord help you though if you bother him. It’s surprisingly breezy and light for a spy novel. You won’t be getting bogged down in page after page of extra information like some I’ve read, which has its place when you’re in the mood. With this I got exactly what I needed to know exactly when I needed to know it with a delightfully hefty helping of humor throughout. By the end you’ll be very attached to our little core group of goofballs. Even Ho, like a little bit. A very little bit. I’m looking forward to picking up the next.
Also my goodness River, you do have terrible judgment. He needs to work on that.