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Spook Street

The bestselling thrillers that inspired the hit Apple TV+ show Slow Horses (Slough House Thriller 4)

Mick Herron author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:John Murray Press

Published:3rd Mar '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Spook Street cover

In Spook Street, a retired intelligence officer's forgotten secrets put him in danger, prompting his grandson to take drastic action to protect him.

In the gripping novel Spook Street, the fourth installment of the acclaimed Slough House series, readers are reintroduced to the world of disgraced spies led by the indomitable Jackson Lamb. This time, the focus shifts to David Cartwright, a retired intelligence officer who has long kept his secrets buried. However, when Cartwright's memory falters and hidden truths resurface, he finds himself in grave danger, drawing the attention of those who want to silence him.

River Cartwright, David's grandson, has been trained to be a hero but now finds himself stuck in the mundane world of Slough House, working alongside Lamb's motley crew of misfit agents. Despite his current circumstances, River is determined to protect his grandfather at any cost. The tension escalates as Jackson Lamb is called to action, forced to confront the past and navigate the murky waters of espionage, where nothing is as it seems.

Spook Street masterfully blends suspense with dark humor, showcasing the complexities of loyalty and the shadows of the intelligence world. As the plot unfolds, readers are treated to a thrilling ride filled with unexpected twists and a cast of characters that are both flawed and endearing. With its sharp writing and intricate storytelling, this novel reaffirms why the Slough House series has garnered such a dedicated following, now also an award-winning series on Apple TV+.

A terrific spy novel: sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting * Ian Rankin *
Immensely satisfying and utterly brilliant * Sarah Hilary *
Mick Herron is an incredible writer and if you haven't read him yet, you NEED to. I read the Jackson Lamb books one after the other and am already desperate for the next one. They are smart, darkly comic and hugely addictive * Mark Billingham *
A captivating series where the intelligence services' misfits and screw-ups become the useful tools of Herron's quite magnificent creation, Jackson Lamb * Christopher Brookmyre *
I love Mick Herron's books more than is decent. Hands down my favourite crime series of the decade . . . Spook Street is a superb novel - fast-paced, original, witty and completely satisfying on every level. I just can't get enough of this brilliant series * Antonia Hodgson *
In Spook Street Mick Herron returns to the wonderful fallen spies of MI5 in a series that is fast becoming a classic * Daily Express *
The dialogue crackles. Herron is a master of timing, word by word, sentence by sentence. His language creates its own world, with streaks of satire and loss that prevent it from becoming too comfortable. Give yourself a treat and hurry on down to Spook Street * The Spectator *
It's all sheer fun. Herron is spy fiction's great humorist, mixing absurd situations with sparklingly funny dialogue and elegant, witty prose * The Times *
Slough House provides the hub for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb spy novels, of which Spook Street is the fourth, a series that is by some distance the most impressive new body of work in spy fiction * Irish Times *
Mick Herron's outstanding series is extremely funny * Daily Telegraph *
It's not often a reviewer can say, "You've never read anything quite like this" but it's a safe encomium to use in the case of Mick Herron. The author's idiosyncratic writing is unique in his genre: the spycraft of le Carré refracted through the blackly comic vision of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 * Financial Times *
Herron's series of novels about a group of deadbeat spies - or 'slow horses', in spook parlance - has been hailed as the most exciting thing to hit the genre since George Smiley hung up his mackintosh * Mail on Sunday *
Spook Street is written with a wry, sardonic wit that will make you laugh out loud as you are taken on a gripping thrill ride * Daily Express *
The new spy master * Evening Standard *
Mick Herron's Spook Street began with an atrocity targeted at teenagers, which seemed horribly prescient come the Manchester Arena attack in May. But it's these discomfiting dips into the real world that give Herron's entertaining series about incompetent MI5 rejects its depth * Daily Telegraph, Crime Books of the Year *
The long and enduring power of Le Carré leaves British espionage fiction a cramped space for newcomers. Mick Herron has carved out his own distinctive territory . . . Chief cowboy of the slow horses, Jackson Lamb, whose vulgar hedonism would be enough to make Falstaff look like Philip Hammond, is becoming one of crime fiction's great characters * Mark Lawson, Guardian, Crime Book of the Year *
This is irresistible writing suggesting a lovechild of le Carre and Joseph Heller's Catch-22: ironclad storytelling and off-kilter humour * Financial Times, Books of the Year *
This fourth in Herron's series of novels about Slough House, the department for disgraced spies, combines a terrorist attack, the murder of an old spymaster, and a mysterious fire to create a brilliantly plotted - and witty - addition * Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year *
A modern masterpiece * Irish Times, Books of the Year *
The lavishly loathsome Jackson Lamb oversees the action with all the finesse of a shark in a swimming pool * Metro, Crime Novel of the Year *

  • Winner of CWA Daggers: Steel 2017 (UK)
  • Short-listed for CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger 2017 (UK)
  • Short-listed for Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2018 (UK)

ISBN: 9781399803076

Dimensions: 196mm x 128mm x 30mm

Weight: 282g

352 pages