Slough House Book Series

Slough House is where disgraced and demoted spies go to spend the rest of their careers - but under the stewardship of Jackson Lamb, these spies will do anything to get back in the game. Now streaming as Slow Horses, the Slough House books by Mick Herron are perfect for fans of John Le Carré and anyone who likes their thrillers with a side of espionage. 

New Slough House Book

Read the Slough House books in order

Slow Horses

Slow Horses

Mick Herron €11.99

*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden* 'The most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times 'To have been lucky enough to play Smiley in one's career; and now go and play Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron's novels - the heir, in a way, to le Carré - is a terrific thing' Gary Oldman * Spooks are supposed to be stealthy . . .

But those who make a noisy mess of their careers end up in Slough House.

This is Jackson Lamb's kingdom: a dumping ground for spies who've screwed up. Once high fliers, they're now slow horses, condemned to a life of pushing paper as punishment for crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal. In drab and mildewed offices, these highly trained spies moan and squabble, stare at the walls, and dream of better days - not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse, and the one thing they have in common is their desire to be back in the action. So when a young man is kidnapped and held hostage, his beheading scheduled for live broadcast on the net, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quietly and watch. And unless they can prove they're not as useless as they're thought to be, a public execution is going to echo round the world. 'The most enjoyable British spy novel in years' Mail on Sunday 'The new spy master' Evening Standard

Dead lions

Dead lions

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden* 'The new king of the spy thriller' Mail on Sunday'Mick Herron is an incredible writer' Mark Billingham****From the Intelligence Service purgatory that is Slough House, where disgraced spies are sent to see out the dregs of their careers, Jackson Lamb is on his way to Oxford, where a former spook has turned up dead on a bus. Dickie Bow was a talented streetwalker once, good at following people and bringing home their secrets. He was in Berlin with Lamb, back in the day. But he's not an obvious target for assassination in the here and now.On Dickie's phone Lamb finds the last message he ever left, which hints that an old-time Moscow-style op is being run in the Intelligence Service's back-yard. Once a spook, always a spook, and even being dead doesn't mean you can't uncover secrets.Dickie Bow might have tailed his last target, but Lamb and his crew of no-hopers are about to go live.'The spycraft of le Carré refracted through the blackly comic vision of Joseph Heller's Catch-22' Financial Times
Real tigers

Real tigers

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*'The finest British spy fiction of the past 20 years' Metro'Masterful' Daily Mail'A pulsating spy thriller' Daily Express****Slough House is the Intelligence Service outpost for failed spies, former high-fliers now dubbed the 'slow horses'. Catherine Standish, one of their number, worked in Regent's Park long enough to understand treachery, double-dealing and stabbing in the back, and she's known Jackson Lamb long enough to have learned that old sins cast long shadows. And she also knows that chance encounters never happen to spooks, even recovering drunks whose careers have crashed and burned.What she doesn't know is why anyone would target her.So whoever's holding her hostage, it can't be personal. It must be about Slough House. Most likely, it's about Jackson Lamb. And say what you like about Lamb, he'll never leave a joe in the lurch.He might even be someone you could trust with your life.
Spook Street

Spook Street

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden* 'A terrific spy novel' Ian Rankin'A modern masterpiece' Irish Times**** Twenty years retired from the Intelligence Service, David Cartwright still knows where all the bones are buried. But when he forgets that secrets are supposed to stay hidden, there's suddenly a target on his back.The 'Old Bastard' raised his grandson to be a hero, not a slow horse. Now, far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is part of Jackson Lamb's team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House. Which doesn't mean he won't ditch everything and go rogue when his grandfather comes under threat.Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day, and knows better than most that this is no innocent old man. So when a panic button raises the alarm at Intelligence Service HQ, it's Lamb who's called on to identify the body. And it's Lamb who'll do whatever's necessary to protect an agent in peril.'Outstanding' Daily Telegraph
London rules

London rules

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*'Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation' Val McDermid'The best thriller writer in Britain today' Sunday Express**** At Regent's Park, the Intelligence Service HQ, new First Desk Claude Whelan is learning the job the hard way.Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.Over at Slough House, the last stop for washed up spies, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - making a bad situation much, much worse.'Dazzlingly inventive' Sunday Times
Joe Country

Joe Country

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*'Sets a new bar for spy fiction' Financial Times**** In Slough House, the backwater for failed spies, memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.With winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible for killing a slow horse breaks cover at last, Lamb sends his crew out to even the score.This time, they're heading into joe country. And they're not all coming home.'The go-to author for British espionage' Guardian'Bitingly intelligent, light of touch and frequently hilarious' Observer
Slough House

Slough House

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden**THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* ***WINNER OF THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022***'A gripping thriller' Ian Rankin**** Slough House - the crumbling office building to which failed spies, the 'slow horses', are banished - has been wiped from secret service records.Reeling from recent losses in their ranks, the slow horses are worried they've been pushed further into the cold, and fatal accidents keep happening.With a new populist movement taking a grip on London's streets, the aftermath of a blunder by the Russian secret service that left a British citizen dead, and the old order ensuring that everything's for sale to the highest bidder, the world's an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass.But the slow horses aren't famed for making wise decisions.'The most completely realised espionage universe since that peopled by George Smiley' The Times'An absolute tour-de-force' Sunday Express
Bad actors

Bad actors

Mick Herron €11.99
*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden* THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A pitch-perfect espionage thriller' Sunday Times'The foremost living spy novelist in the English language' New Statesman****In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere.A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5's Regent's Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent's Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5's radar.Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation.In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they'll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.*Includes the short story Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude*'This is entertainment of the highest class' Literary Review'The man is a genius' The Spectator
Clown Town

Clown Town

Mick Herron €9.49

The Instant Sunday Times Bestselling Thriller from the Author of Slow Horses

SUNDAY TIMES, THRILLER OF THE YEAR
GUARDIAN, CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR
DAILY TELEGRAPH, BOOK OF THE YEAR
TLS, BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE SPECTATOR, BOOK OF THE YEAR

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'Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer' Ian Rankin
'Clown Town is a masterpiece' India Knight, Sunday Times
'An authentic megastar of the genre' Sam Leith, Guardian
'No one can rival Mick Herron' The Times
'A superb thriller' The Spectator
'Masterly' Times Literary Supplement, books of the year

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MI5's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats.

So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner goes on the offensive. And when that happens, people get hurt.

Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, the slow horses are hard at work: belittling each other, pushing paper and marking time. Their boss, Jackson Lamb, wants them at their desks, but the slow horses are always looking for a way back on to Spook Street.

Meanwhile, another slow horse, River Cartwright, is waiting to be passed fit for work. At a loose end, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man's library, and a mysteriously missing book. What stories will it hold? And who wants those stories to stay silent?

After all, spies lie, they betray, it's what they do.

*Mick Herron's Clown Town was a Sunday Times Number Four bestseller in hardback in the second week of September 2025

Watch the Quiet Snow: The Slough House Novellas

Watch the Quiet Snow: The Slough House Novellas

Mick Herron €17.99

At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, perfect for fans of the #1 bestselling Slough House series.

Espionage. Blackmail. Revenge. Cunning. Secrets.

From the troubled recruitment of a new MI5 informant to the buried secrets of the Cold War, Herron's novellas capture the drama, humour, and high stakes of everyday life in the world of spycraft. A world rife with both legends and secrets, where thrill-seeking and loneliness are ubiquitous and deadly, and where the lines between friends, enemies, and lovers are perpetually blurred by circumstance and subterfuge.

Watch The Quiet Snow is an excellent introduction to the wider world of Mick Herron's Slough House. The collection includes: The List, The Drop, The Catch, The Last Dead Letter, and Standing by the Wall.

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