Standing By The Wall

Standing By The Wall by Mick Herron (2022 John Murray-Baskerville paperback 57pp)

 

First of all, to avoid confusion I’m talking about the UK version of “Standing By The Wall” which is a slim miniature softcover published by John Murray containing just one short story. In the US market you can get a book by the same name published by Soho which contains all of Mick Herron’s  ‘Slough House’ short fiction to date including the title story.

Set after the events of “Bad Actors” and spanning just 56 small pages “Standing By The Wall” is a very slight addition to the Slough House/Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb canon. Subtitled ‘A Slough House Interlude’ it really is just that, a nice Christmas themed short story bound to be given in droves to Herron fans as a gift this year.

It’s the day before Christmas in Slough House and Jackson Lamb has received an unexpected gift. He summons Roddy Ho to his office and tasks him with digitally altering a mysterious old photograph. As Roddy works, he lapses into his usual self-aggrandizing fantasy about how important he is to Lamb and how would the other agents ever live without him.

Meanwhile a convalescing River Cartwright drops by to visit the team. Witty banter is had and he’s warned not to bother Lamb, will he take heed of their words? Christmas drinks are being organised (without Roddy Ho being let in on the location) and everyone gets a few good lines.

There’s not much more than that really, only 4 or 5 scenes in total ending with a little mystery and a revelation.

As always, it’s fun to land back in the world of these characters. I can’t really fault this for what it is. There are some laughs and more serious ruminations. It’s probably a little expensive for a 56-page short story. If you don’t already own the other Slough House short fiction it might be a better idea to get hold of the US version instead.