# Slough House (novel series)

Slough House is a series of spy novels by the British author Mick Herron. Herron began writing the first volume, Slow Horses, in 2008, and published it in 2010.
The series follows River Cartwright and his colleagues, a group of humiliated MI5 agents, who have been relegated to paper pushing jobs. They serve under a crude ageing Cold War era agent, Jackson Lamb, and will do anything to get back into the game.
Herron's books have sold more than four million copies. They have been called a satirical, "rollicking subversion" of the stories of John le Carré.

## Plot synopsis

Slough House is a deceptively named location, located not in Slough but in the City of London near Barbican tube station. Appearing from the outside as an unassuming office building, Slough House is a dead end. A place where the British Intelligence service sends their rejects, failures, and embarrassments in the hopes they quit or prematurely retire. The office is overseen by Jackson Lamb, an ageing agent who cut his teeth during the Cold War and resents the "Slow Horses" (disgraced agents) who end up on his doorstep.
Everyone has a reason for being at Slough House. River Cartwright was in the final stages of assessment for MI5, when he made a mistake that shut down London King's Cross railway station. Min Harper was relegated for leaving confidential information on a train, Louisa Guy lost the tail of an important suspect and Roddy Ho was cursed with an unpalatable personality. While River is desperate to get back to being a field agent, the closest Lamb will let him is searching through people's garbage.
Meanwhile, the management of MI5 at Regent's Park are bent on maintaining the service's budgets and improving its standing within society. Diana Taverner, the deputy-director, has no respect for the agents of Slough House and happily manipulates them as she sees fit, dangling the carrot of being pulled out of workplace purgatory.
Throughout the series the agents of Slough House navigate the legacies of Cold War espionage, outwit threats to national security and protect their team from higher powers in the intelligence service.

## Publishing history

Slow Horses was published in the United Kingdom by Constable in 2010. The book underperformed and the publisher declined Herron's follow up book Dead Lions. Herron struggled to find another publisher, as publishers were reluctant to publish a sequel for a book they hadn't released, and were confused by the novel’s blend of thriller and comedy elements.
Herron's follow-up novels Dead Lions and Real Tigers were released in the United States by Soho Press. Juliet Grames, who runs the Soho Crime Imprint, was energised by Herron's writing and bought further rights for Slow Horses.
John Murray acquired the rights to release the series in the UK and released its editions of the first two books in 2015. While the release also did not initially bear fruit, the series found success after Waterstones named Slow Horses its ‘thriller of the month’ in August 2017.
In 2017, the series became a breakout success in the US when Nancy Pearl discussed Slow Horses on NPR. Soho printed an additional 2,000 copies of the book which sold out in 24 hours; they would go on to sell 20,000 copies that month.
Herron's books have sold more than four million copies.
British actor Seán Barrett voices the series's audiobook adaptations.
The Slough House series comprises nine novels and five novellas:
Slough House series :
| Number | Title | First published | Format | ISBN |
| 1 | Slow Horses | 2010 | novel | 978-1473674189 |
| 2 | Dead Lions | 2013 | novel | 978-1616952259 |
| 2.5 | The List | 2015 | novella | 978-1616957452 |
| 3 | Real Tigers | 2016 | novel | 978-1616956127 |
| 4 | Spook Street | 2017 | novel | 978-1473621299 |
| 5 | London Rules | 2018 | novel | 978-1473657403 |
| 5.5 | The Drop | 2018 | novella | 978-1473678309 |
| 6 | Joe Country | 2019 | novel | 978-1473657441 |
| 6.3 | The Catch | 2020 | novella | 978-1529331707 |
| 6.7 | The Last Dead Letter | 2020 | novella | 978-1529371260 |
| 7 | Slough House | 2021 | novel | 978-1529378641 |
| 8 | Bad Actors | 2022 | novel | 978-1529378702 |
| 8.3 | Standing by the Wall | 2022 | novella | 978-1399807081 |
| 8.7 | Standing by the Wall | 2022 | collection | 978-1641295031 |
| 9 | Clown Town | 2025 | novel | 978-1399800433 |

### Novellas

Herron has written five spinoff novellas/short stories; The List (2015), The Marylebone Drop (2018), The Catch (2020), The Last Dead Letter (2020) and Standing by the Wall (2022).
In 2022, the stories were published in a singular print edition.
Standing by the Wall was inspired by Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life.

### Related novels

Three of Herron's other novels, Reconstruction (2008), Nobody Walks (2015) and The Secret Hours (2023), take place within the same world and feature characters from the series, but are not considered part of the main Slough House series.
Reconstruction follows "Bad Sam" Chapman as the Head of the Dogs and gives information to his back story. Missing money, a runaway kid and a nursery hostage situation in Oxford are the main plot points of this debut novel.
Nobody Walks introduces us to a few familiar faces within the world of Slough House, including psych-eval's JK Coe (first appearance in The List), and Dame Ingrid Tearney, the formidable First Desk who uses the characters in this story like somebody would use chess pieces on a board. It follows former Head Dog Tom Bettany who is trying to discover how his son died.
The Secret Hours is a story that investigates the backgrounds of many characters that readers would immediately recognise, from Diana Taverner to Jackson Lamb himself.