Joe Country - Mick Herron

*Now a major TV series starring Gary Oldman*

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

'Sets a new bar for spy fiction' Financial Times

In Slough House, the backwater for failed spies, memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.

With winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible for killing a slow horse breaks cover at last, Lamb sends his crew out to even the score.

This time, they're heading into joe country. And they're not all coming home.

'The go-to author for British espionage' Guardian

'Bitingly intelligent, light of touch and frequently hilarious' Observer

Mick Herron is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have won two CWA Daggers, been published in 20 languages, and are the basis of a major TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zo Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction and This is What Happened. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Herron does not seek to be John le Carre - his is a wryer, more ironic style; faster, more down to earth, with rapid prose that grabs you by the throat. If you haven't read him yet, do so now
Daily Mail

The best thriller writer in Britain today
Daily Express

This series is bitingly intelligent, light of touch and frequently hilarious
Observer

Mick Herron is fast becoming the go-to author for British espionage . . . Aficionados can expect Herron's trademark snappy dialogue, memorably flawed characters and sharp political observation
Guardian

Herron is superior to the vast majority of thriller writers at their best, and there's no shortage here of reliable treats ranging from messy, inept gunfights to brutally sarcastic dialogue
Sunday Times

Every bit as captivating as its predecessors . . . like a pin-sharp sitcom that happens to include murder and high politics, they purr along on the gracelessness and ineptitude of the self-deluding Slow Horses, the unmatchable Lamb, and the crackling writing that has made all six in the series unmissable
Big Issue

A delight - an ingeniously plotted thriller, delivered in bone dry, sublimely sardonic style
Sunday Mirror

Herron's morbidly witty backdrop hosts incisive storytelling with a rich mix of engaging characters
Financial Times

Well observed, angry and deeply sad, Joe Country is fundamentally about injustice . . . It is a rare novelist who can make such unrelenting misery so funny
TLS

Mick Herron's Slough House spy thrillers are by now, one of the least well-kept secrets in espionage fiction. Everyone with even half an eye on the genre knows he is somewhere near the top . . . Herron is a fine, often glorious sentence-by-sentence writer, and fiercely funny with his dialogue . . . a hugely satisfying addition to the series
Literary Review

Herron's running jokes with language are part of the fun, and his corpulent, politically incorrect and scatalogically creative eminence noir Jackson Lamb is the icing on the cake
The Times

If you haven't yet immersed yourself in the world of Slough House, the arena for Herron's jaded and thoroughly imperfect spies, you've a treat in store . . . Combining espionage, ennui and deadpan humour, they set a new bar for spy fiction
FT, Books of the Year

A complex, accomplished novel by the best thriller writer in Britain today
Daily Express, Books of the Year