Book review: London Rules by Mick Herron

I’m struggling to write a review of London Rules. On the one hand I love it so much I want to tell you all about it. On the other there are so many clever twists that I don’t want to give anything away at all.

If you’re new to this series, it features the ‘slow horses’,  intelligence service staff who, for a variety of reasons – trauma, addiction or just temperament – have been deemed unsuitable for their occupation. They are kept on the payroll but are exiled to Slough House, a rundown building where they are expected to do mind-numbing tasks bereft of danger or challenge.

In London Rules, Britain is in the grip of Brexit madness, random terror events and most shocking of all, slow horse Roddy Ho, computer genius and social failure, has got a girlfriend. And slightly less shocking, someone is trying to kill him. The slow horses feel bound to intervene, and chaos ensues as they are not only up against killers, but their own employer.

From the stunning prologue to the long, leisurely first chapter worthy of Dickens, the prose is beautiful and creates a pleasing tension. You want to race ahead to what happens next but also to savour what you’re reading now. The political characters are brilliantly – if brutally – observed and would make you weep if you weren’t already laughing out loud.

Most of all, for me, it’s the series characters that keep me reading – their talents, their flaws, the endless machinations of the people in power and the bloodymindedness of those pushed out.

When I finished reading, I immediately felt bereft and eager to know what’s coming next.

I received a copy of London Rules from the publisher via Netgalley.
View London Rules on Goodreads

Enjoyed this? Check out my review of Spook Street by Mick Herron. He also features on  my list of favourite crime fiction writers.