2023/136: Slow Horses — Mick Herron

2023/136: Slow Horses — Mick Herron

If Moscow rules meant watch your back, London rules meant cover your arse. Moscow rules had been written on the streets, but London rules were devised in the corridors of Westminster, and the short version read: someone always pays. [p. 254]

Someone described this as 'Generation X slacker spies' and that's an apt summary. Slough House (hence 'slow horses') is where MI5's rejects -- the ones who've left classified info in a public place, the ones who've screwed up a training exercise, the ones who make bad calls or are implicated in bad ops -- end up. It's easier than firing them and there's always a chance that Jackson Lamb, the unlikeable, uncharismatic and flatulent head of Slough House, will inspire them to leave of their own accord.

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