416 pages
English language
Published Feb. 23, 2011 by Isis.
Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda ...
Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda ...
Here’s a great tale where everyone is a little broken and a little queer, the game is deception on top of deception. Everyone is trying to get ahead or back in the game or just keep their head. The coverup is the crisis and it all falls apart for some as it falls together for others.
Even within a chapter you get a clue and a mystery or two and a turn that makes you exclaim. Very fun.
I found that the attempt at snappy witty dialogue sometimes fell flat, and I just had this can't-quite-pin-down sensation that the book was somehow trying too hard, but this was overall a pretty good spy thriller.
I found that the attempt at snappy witty dialogue sometimes fell flat, and I just had this can't-quite-pin-down sensation that the book was somehow trying too hard, but this was overall a pretty good spy thriller.
