With a new season of Slow Horses streaming on Apple TV+, now is as good of a time as any to look at the books that inspired the series. The Slough House novels by Mick Herron are a great read, so here is how to read all of them in order.
How To Read the Slough House Books in Order
Book 1: Slow Horses
Slow Horses is the first book in the series and is the basis for the first season of the TV show. The novel does an excellent job of introducing us to our main cast of characters, including the head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb, for the first time. It involves the Slow Horses getting dragged into a hostage situation manufactured by MI6 that goes south.
Book 2: Dead Lions
The series’ second book focuses on Jackson Lamb and his crew’s encounter with Cicada’s Russian Sleeper agents from the Cold War. It’s an exhilarating thriller that won the CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and is the focus of the show’s second season.
Book 3: Real Tigers
The third season of Slow Horses is an adaptation of Real Tigers, and the third book involves River and Louisa, two Slow Horses, becoming trapped in an MI6 bomb bunker that’s been transformed into a file archive with a rogue agent. A Tiger Team is sent in to kill the rogue agent and the Slow Horses as they are embroiled in yet another conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of MI6.
Book 4: Spook Street
The fourth season of Slow Horses, which has just started being released, adapts the fourth book in the series. Spook Street posits the question: what happens when an old agent who knows too much begins to lose his mind slowly? The old agent in question is River’s grandfather, who begins to lose his grip on reality right when dark forces from his past come to silence him before he reveals too much.
Book 5: London Rules
The fifth book in the series, London Rules, focuses on a series of terror attacks that have MI6 and the First Desk, particularly, facing harsh and heavy criticism. Roddy Ho, one of the least liked but funniest characters in the series, is at the center of this book, as his narrow escape from one of the terror attacks soon becomes anything but a coincidence.
Related: All Major Actors & Cast List for Slow Horses Season 4
Book 6: Joe Country
The sixth book of the Slough House novels, Joe Country, is something of a continuation of book four, with villain Frank Harkness reappearing. The Slow Horses have a score to settle with Frank after his machinations in Book 4 left one of their own dead, and what follows is a tumultuous and deadly game of cat-and-mouse in Joe Country under the backdrop of snowy and ice-cold terrain.
Book 7: Slough House
The seventh book in the series finds the Slow Horses seemingly wiped from service records, and each member of Slough House is followed, as it seems that the infamous wing of MI6 may be closed down in the darkest way possible.
Book 8: Bad Actors
The latest full-length novel in the Slough House series, Bad Actors, is filled with dark humor and intense political intrigue involving Russian intelligence agents who have seemingly snuck onto British soil.
Book 9: Standing By The Wall
The latest entry in the Slough House book series, Standing By The Wall, is a collection of novellas that take place in between the main books, with the last short story in this book taking place after the Bad Actors novel, making it the latest entry in the series and something you’ll want to pick up if you’ve finished the main series of books.
Bonus: The Secret Hours
Mick Herron’s latest book is a seemingly standalone novel unconnected to the Slough House series. However, eagle-eyed and observant fans of the series will want to pick this book up, as its connections to the broader world of Slow Horses and its critical characters are as intriguing as they are revelatory.
And that’s how to read the Slough House books in order.
Slow Horses is streaming now on Apple TV+.
Published: Sep 4, 2024 01:17 pm