Bad Actors by Mick Herron (2022 Baskerville/John Murray paperback 341pp)
It goes without saying that if you’re already a fan of Mick Herron’s Slough House/Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb series that you’ll want and NEED to read the latest installment. If you’re new to the books (perhaps attracted by the recent TV series) this volume for once might be a good jumping on point – its fairly self-contained and most of the references to previous events are explained. Honestly though, do yourself a favour and read the whole series from the beginning, it’s so rich and enjoyable and you’ll love these characters so much more if you do so.
The plot as such concerns Sophie De Greer a much-lauded ‘Super forecaster’ from a government think-tank who goes missing. Anthony Sparrow, special advisor to the Prime Minister tasks former MI5 head Claude Whelan with finding her and meanwhile plots against the secret service itself.
Current head of MI5 Diana Taverner is still watching her back after the events of the previous book where she accepted private funding for an operation. Her actions have given her enemies something to hold over her and she expects the worst.
Meanwhile a senior Russian intelligence agent has been spotted in London and what is his connection to a recent house fire?
As usual the motley crew of Slough House gets involved in events and things go generally to Hell.
There are one or two new faces introduced to work along with the regular characters but generally you’re among old friends for the duration. For the first half of the book much mention is made of a recent incident involving the crew in Wimbledon. This had me scratching my head and struggling to recall something possibly from the last book but all is revealed half-way through the book when Jackson Lamb sits down for a chat with Taverner and we’re treated to an ‘interlude’ where the Wimbledon story is told in full. It’s a new direction in storytelling by Herron and it works well along with a new ‘relay race’ type way of showing us the action – rather than having an entire chapter from one character’s point of view, he hands off from one to another from paragraph to paragraph. Its effective and keeps things moving.
John Batchelor from the Novellas plays a small role in the story and we see his life hasn’t improved any. In general, I found this installment more humorous and not quite as dark and despairing as the previous one (“Slough House” 2021). The regular gang are all given time to shine and display the reasons why they are indeed outcasts. There are a couple of moments where Herron fakes you out into thinking some characters haven’t made it then pulls the rug out from under you in quick order. Nice trick but not one you want him to repeat too often.
It left me wanting more, to spend more time with these characters and what higher praise can you give than that?
