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Spook Street

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

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Spook Street

By: Mick Herron
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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Summary

*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
Crime Thrillers Espionage Political Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mystery Thriller Detective Crime Exciting Witty
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Critic reviews

A terrific spy novel: sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting
Immensely satisfying and utterly brilliant
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
A captivating series where the intelligence services' misfits and screw-ups become the useful tools of Herron's quite magnificent creation, Jackson Lamb
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
In Spook Street Mick Herron returns to the wonderful fallen spies of MI5 in a series that is fast becoming a classic
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
It's all sheer fun. Herron is spy fiction's great humorist, mixing absurd situations with sparklingly funny dialogue and elegant, witty prose
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
Mick Herron's outstanding series is extremely funny
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
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
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
The new spy master
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
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
All stars
Most relevant
Love the characters. Slough House is a wonderful invention, and is packed with terrific characters you just want to follow and observe. And I love the trade craft.

A great thriller, like all in this series. Now I just have to wait for the next one.

Excellent as always

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If you could sum up Spook Street in three words, what would they be?

Modern take on MI5's miss-fits and wannabes

What about Seán Barrett’s performance did you like?

Excellent narration.

Any additional comments?

Great series of novels. Characters get better and better.

Great series

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If you could sum up Spook Street in three words, what would they be?

Imaginative, tense, funny

What did you like best about this story?

It built most successfully on the themes and genre of the previous books in the excellent series.

What about Seán Barrett’s performance did you like?

He is always reliably good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not particularly because it is fine to come back to it during car journeys. But it certainly never flags and one could listen in one go in the right circumstances.

Any additional comments?

Hoping for another in the series.

Another great book in the series

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The ‘Slough House’ series by Mick Herron has been a joyful discovery. I am not surprised that ‘Slow Horses’ is due to be filmed with Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. Sean Barrett’s reading has all the depth and tone of a master storyteller…and he sounds like Oldman did in the ‘Tinker, Tailor’ film. The storylines are not in the least predictable but they are satisfyingly resolved. A GREAT series, brilliantly written and beautifully read….thank you.

A brilliant reading by Sean Barrett only adds to the quality of this production

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Really enjoyable with great plot and storytelling. The best Slow Horses book so far. Recommended.

The best Slow Horses book so far

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