Berk Worms Book Club: Spy/ Espionage

Welcome to the Berk Worms: a local book club based in Berkhamsted. Each month we read a book from a different genre. This August the genre is Spy/ Espionage. We have chosen to read ‘Slow Horses’ by Mick Herrons’ Slough House Thriller 1, written in June 2010. This is the first book in a CWA Gold Dagger award winning British espionage series - part of an 8 part series called Slough House Thrillers. It has also been made into a major Television series starring Gary Oldman who plays Jackson Lamb .

The novel runs at approximately 336 pages in length and it is available in all formats. The paperback is £2.99 on Amazon.

Come along and chat about the book, other books you are reading and all things to do with books and the rest of the universe.

About the book:

Slough House is the outpost where disgraced spies are banished to see out the rest of their derailed careers. Known as the 'slow horses' these misfits have committed crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal while on duty.

In this drab and mildewed office these highly trained spies don't run ops, they push paper. Not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a slow horse and the one thing they have in common is they want to be back in the action, back in the game, even if it means they have to collaborate with one another. River Cartwright, one such ‘slow horse’, is bitter about his failure and his tedious assignment, transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself.

The Author: Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, early novels of which have been adapted for the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger award for Dead Lions.

Critical views:

‘The most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times

"The John Le Carré of our generation'
VAL McDERMID

'The most enjoyable British spy novel in years' Mail on Sunday

'The new spy master' Evening Standard

"Britain's finest living thriller writer' SUNDAY EXPRESS

Reading ahead with the Berkworms:

12 September - Thriller - The Girl in the Missing Poster by Barbara Copperthwaite.
October - History ( non-fiction)
November - Biography
December - Award Winning Book
Happy reading, Cazza