Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail.
Radioactive secrets and unfinished business go with the territory on Spook Street: he's always known there would be an accounting. And he's not as defenceless as they might think.
Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day. He knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man. 'Nasty old spook with blood on his hands' would be a more accurate description.
'The old bastard' has raised his grandson with a head full of guts and glory. But far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is consigned to Lamb's team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House.
So it's Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright's panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ.
And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril . . .
About the Author
Mick Herron is the author of the bestselling Slough House novels, which have won two CWA Daggers, been published in 20 languages, and are the basis of a major forthcoming TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zoe Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction and This is What Happened. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.
Industry Reviews
Immensely satisfying and utterly brilliant - Sarah Hilary
A terrific spy novel: sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting - Ian Rankin
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 - Mark Billingham
A captivating series where the intelligence services' misfits and screw-ups become the useful tools of Herron's quite magnificent creation, Jackson Lamb - Christopher Brookmyre
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 - Antonia Hodgson
In Spook Street Mick Herron returns to the wonderful fallen spies of MI5 in a series that is fast becoming a classic - Daily Express
Stylistically, you can draw comparisons with the work of Raymond Chandler, though Herron keeps a tighter grasp on his narrative than Chandler ever did. But the story takes second place to the prose. 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 - The Spectator
It's all sheer fun. Herron is spy fiction's great humorist, mixing absurd situations with sparklingly funny dialogue and elegant, witty prose - The Times
