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- Verified Buyer
Like the other books in the series, this is a great one. Great plot. Great characters. Laugh-out-loud humor, sometimes in the most morbid of situations.The character of Jackson Lamb is most intriguing because he is the most endearing, the most humorous, and the most cruel and obnoxious.My friend RP, who recommended the Slough House series to me, notes that Lamb is the best reason to read the books. Quite true. But also perplexing, because Lamb is an a-hole. For example, the character of Catherine Standish is a recovering alcoholic, and Lamb relentlessly pokes at her, pouring her alcoholic drinks when she comes into his office and repeatedly mentioning her drunken past. Lamb makes scatological references, as well as cruel and bigoted jokes about an Asian character, about a Black character, about an old man and about his employees in general.Here are some highlights:“…I’ve had bowel movements that worry me more.” He reflected a moment. “Quite recently, come to think of it.”And:“There’s always Louisa, of course. She’s pretty reliable.”“Well, it’s a sliding scale, isn’t it?” said Lamb. “Least f’d-up employee of the week. We should have a plaque.”And this zinger:“I hate ageism, as you know, but old people are pretty useless.”So why do we love him? Because he’s funny, obviously, but more than that, because when the chips are down, he’s extremely competent and backs his slow horses with his life and career. Lamb has the ingenious ability to understand the motivations of people, to track their tortuous thought processes, to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing or why they are lying. There is also a touching scene where Lamb thinks Catherine Standish may drink an alcoholic beverage he’s given her. And when she doesn’t, he pours the drink into his glass, as if it disturbs him that Catherine might relapse. The reader can tell that Lamb is a broken character, that something so horrible has happened to him he wants the banishment of supervising the exiled slow horses toiling at Slough House. All of this makes him endearing in the same way a grizzly bear is endearing — from a distance, without having to interact with him personally.The detailed descriptions of scenes and settings in the book are superb. When the narrator describes a cafe, it’s easy to imagine the author Mick Herron visiting the place, taking detailed notes and then weaving those notes into the novel. And that applies to each scene in the book. Herron paints vivid pictures that give the reader the sense of being there. Read the passages aloud and then take a moment to close your eyes and visualize them. They’re that good.There is one action scene in the book that is quite unrealistic. It involves a car crash and a bad guy taking a gun from an MI5 agent, who is a former cop. I won’t go into the details, but it is an ugly head in an otherwise brilliant story. (Apparently, the writers of the TV series recognized it as not very plausible and tried to rewrite it. They didn’t do much better. Their scene is literally incredible too.)Still. My recommendation is read this book. You won’t want to put it down.
