Superb UK secret intelligence services story. A young man is kidnapped, and it is announced that he will be beheaded with the execution being livestreamed. The slow horses, failed agents who are consigned to meaningless work designed to drive them voluntarily from the service, find themselves involved. The story unfolds in a wonderfully unexpected way, the reveals are superbly staged moving the narrative in very unexpected directions.
Mick Heron has taken a cliché story about the resurrection of a group of professional failures as they are drawn into action and revealed why it has become a cliché, in the right hands it is a fantastic story engine.
The plot mechanics are astounding, actions and consequences unfurl seamlessly and unexpectedly. There is no sense of anything happening because it is required to happen, the dominos fall with natural grace and credibility. The plot arises from decisions and responses by the large cast, actions have consequences which create further actions and consequences. The unfolding of the kidnapping is a masterpiece of subverting reader expectations by doing something better than they would have imagined.
The balance between the cast of slow horses and the circumstances they are pulled into is struck with delightful confidence, the reader can completely relax into the story and follow the cast as they all try not to become victims.
Mick Heron is not in a hurry to introduce the slow horses, the situation they are in is described with meticulous care, the reasons why they are there are delivered slowly and very effectively as the story unfolds. The cast are given the space and time to become themselves as they must struggle with the actions that have landed them among the slow horses. There is no super heroics in the story, hard won experience and brutal competence do not fade away even as they are swept out of sight.
There are no rules for talent and Mick Heron takes genre tropes and makes them sparkle like new. Hugely engaging story, a pleasure to read.
