LONDON 鈥� Like a spy in the night, writer Mick Herron鈥檚 success has been stealthy. It took a while for the world to catch up with him.
A decade after he introduced a crew of flawed secret agents caught between sinister plotters and cynical spymasters in the novel 鈥淪low Horses,鈥� Herron is a
A seventh novel in his spy series, 鈥淪lough House,鈥� is out this week, and a TV adaptation is in production with an A-list cast led by Gary Oldman.
But initially, few took notice.
鈥淢aybe it just wasn鈥檛 the right time,鈥� the soft-spoken Herron recalled recently. 鈥淭here were voices in my publishing company at the time that were saying the politics of the book were pretty ridiculous because it鈥檚 all about the far right and references to (Britain) possibly leaving the European Union.鈥�
Herron鈥檚 original British publisher declined a second book, but Soho Press in the United States stuck by him, and U.K. publisher John Murray later championed the novels.
After a decade that saw Brexit roil Britain and populism surge around the globe, Herron鈥檚 fictional world of damaged secret agents, self-serving politicians and buck-passing bureaucrats seems to capture 21st-century anxieties much as le Carr茅鈥檚 morally ambiguous tales caught the spirit of the Cold War.
Herron鈥檚 spies have all been banished from MI5 headquarters to do dull work in a drab London office building 鈥� Slough (rhymes with cow) House 鈥� for career-wrecking mistakes. This band of 鈥渟low horses鈥� is presided over by Jackson Lamb, a flatulent, chain-smoking former field agent who alternates between lethargy, insults and flashes of ruthless brilliance.
Herron鈥檚 spies bicker in the office kitchen and worry about money 鈥� a mundane existence periodically interrupted by traumatic events.
It was one such trauma that Herron says 鈥渕ade me want to write about larger events.鈥� He was working as a copy editor in London when suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the city鈥檚 transit system on July 7, 2005.
鈥淚 realized that to be involved, in however small a way, in something like that, all you had to do is be a citizen, a member of a city,鈥� 58-year-old Herron told The Associated Press from his home in the university city of Oxford. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all, I don鈥檛 want to say combatants, but we鈥檙e all potential victims.
鈥淭he idea of a terrorist event as an intrusion on ordinary life, on everyday life, that became something I wanted to write about.鈥�
At the time Herron was writing a detective series, but found spies better suited his desire for 鈥渟tate of the world鈥� novels.
Juliet Grames, Herron鈥檚 American editor, calls his books 鈥渟mart, sophisticated takes on real-world problems, but with sly
Violence, usually senseless, often erupts in Herron鈥檚 books, but it鈥檚 offset by a large dose of mordant wit. His cleverly plotted page-turners are driven by dialogue that bristles with one-liners.
Much of the
鈥淚 have no experience of the covert world," Herron said. 鈥淏ut I have worked in offices. And I鈥檝e worked for a company that ended up being part of a much bigger company. And what I鈥檝e noticed is that the larger an organization gets, the more dysfunctional it becomes.
鈥淚 wanted to show a world where bad things happen because people make errors. And that鈥檚 the basis of the series, because all the people in Slough House have made errors of one sort or another. But also it just seems to me it鈥檚 how the world works.鈥�
鈥淪lough House鈥� was written before the coronavirus pandemic, but there are plenty of real-world echoes, including references to Brexit and the 2018 nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the English city of Salisbury.
Then there is the rumpled, unscrupulous, bicycle-riding British politician Peter Judd, a character Herron insists 鈥渨as never specifically intended to reflect鈥� Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
鈥淗e was intended to reflect a particular kind of privileged, self-seeking, self-interested, ambitious, untrustworthy, unprincipled politician,鈥� said Herron, who attended Oxford University鈥檚 Balliol College at the same time as the current prime minister. 鈥淚 can see why people do relate that to Boris Johnson.鈥�
Herron's damaged but indomitable secret agents include River Cartwright, grandson of a legendary spymaster; dependable recovering alcoholic Catherine Standish; socially inept computer wizard Roderick Ho; and Shirley Dander, a dynamo fueled by rage and cocaine.
Herron says he is fond of them all, but he has no qualms about killing off long-standing characters. It helps to keep readers on edge.
Herron is grateful for his loyal readers, though he is slightly alarmed by how much some embrace the misanthropic Lamb and his repertoire of luridly offensive put-downs.
鈥淪ome people have assumed that because I created this character who does take joy in trampling all over barriers of political correctness, that I must be like that, too,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e had emails from people who鈥檝e written to me in terms that Lamb himself might use, and my jaw drops.鈥�
Now the slow horses are headed for the screen. Herron was a script consultant on the Apple TV series, which stars Oldman as Lamb and Kristin Scott Thomas as slippery MI5 chief Diana 鈥淟ady Di鈥� Taverner. Further cast members are still to be announced, and Herron says 鈥渢here are some names there which people are going to be very impressed by.鈥�
By the time it is broadcast, the world may have returned to something like normality. Herron has been working on his next book during lockdown, but he doesn鈥檛 think it will dwell too much on the experience of the pandemic.
鈥淎ll the characters in it obviously will have undergone the same experiences we all have, and they鈥檒l reference it and
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鈥淪lough House鈥� is published Tuesday in the U.S. by Soho Crime.
Jill Lawless, The Associated Press
