So good! ( )

This little Christmas interlude book by the author of the wonderful Slough House series was an enjoyable little read. I have just been recently introduced to this delightful series by the TV series, and I have read the first book. I'm waiting for the second to become available at the library, and believe me, it's a long wait. There is a reason why this spy series is so popular. The Slow Horse gang is absolutely unique. Mick Harron's writing is sardonic and hilarious. Even in this little Christmas book, the characters come alive. A glimpse at what the Slow Horses get up during the festive season. It's actually not much different than any other season in Slough House. Thanks to my SantaThing elf for sending me this book. ( )

Mick Herron has created a wonderful world in which various MI5 officers who have run aground in their career end up in the Service equivalent of internal exile, banished to work in Slough House. Because of the name of their base, those unfortunates to whom that fate befalls are known as the Service’s ‘Slow horses’, and as if their humiliation were not punishment enough, they have to work for the monstrous Jackson Lamb – think of Reginald Hill’s Superintendent Dalziel but without all the tenderness and effeteness!

In this novella, standing slightly aside from the main sequence of the novels, Jackson lamb has received a Christmas Card made up of a photograph from the past, which pricks his curiosity, and prompts him to stir some of the Slow Horses into work.

I was a little disappointed with this novella, which seemed unusually insubstantial. Herron has produced additional novellas before which have yielded valuable additional insight into the machinations behind the scenes at Slough House. It was difficult to see how this added to the oeuvre. ( )

Roddy Ho Ho Ho!
Review of the Soho Crime Kindle eBook edition (November 1, 2022)

See photograph at https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d4/e3/55/d4e355b56201a4e98455ea5d75953ee0.jpg
The annual Christmas angels on Regent Street, London, England, one of which is used in the cover image photograph for "Standing by the Wall". Image sourced from Pinterest.

Here I am only reviewing the new Slough House story "Standing by the Wall" which is included in this new collection of 5 Slough House novellas. The reviews of the earlier stories/novellas are linked below.

Standing by the Wall continues the cat-and-mouse game between Slough House head Jackson Lamb and the MI-5 Chief Archivist Molly Doran, which was also the theme of the previous short The Last Dead Letter (2021). This new story takes place on Christmas Eve with Jackson Lamb playing his usual Scrooge-like cantankerous self while taking jabs at Catherine Standish and tasking Slough House tech guru Roddy Ho with a last minute photoshop job before he is allowed to leave for the holiday.

Doran sets off the game by sending Lamb a 'Christmas present' of an old photo from the Cold War era when she and Lamb were working 'Joes' in Berlin, Germany. There is a third man in the photo as well and in a turnabout, Lamb asks Roddy Ho to erase him from the photo before sending it back to Doran. The background story is not explained of course. We can only speculate about what the meaning of the photo is to Doran and Lamb. The implication is that the third man is likely deceased and that his fate was perhaps due to an espionage operation. The story title alludes to the Berlin Wall while also referencing that the photograph was shot in front of a brick wall.

There is the regular comic relief of Roddy Ho thinking of himself as Lamb's No. 2 and the key player of Slough House with his technological wizardry and other tools such as his car the Roddymobile aka The Rodster. The rest of the gang are of course ready to ditch him while heading out for an annual Christmas Eve pub drink. Roddy otherwise plans an evening of watching the films "Die Hard", "Die Hard 2" and "Elf".

The story also marks the return of [redacted due to spoiler implications] to Slough House in a cameo appearance which likely signals a complete return in the next full length Slough House novel (#9 - 2023?). There is no cameo appearance by John Bachelor from the List/Drop/Catch trilogy of novellas, so no new milkman* and/or milkrun* intrigues are involved.

Trivia and Links
* A 'milkman' is Mick Herron's spy-speak for a “retirement needs evaluation counselor” otherwise known as a babysitter of former spies living out their remaining lives wherever MI5 resettled them. The 'milkrun' is the 'milkman's' regular monthly series of check-ins with his assigned retirees. Definition from a Slough House Glossary at SpyWrite.

Standing by the Wall can also be read as a single story as published by Baskerville in the UK. You can read their version of the plot summary at its Goodreads page for Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude.

This collection of Slough House aka Slow Horse novellas includes my previously read The List (Slough House #2.5 - 2015) reviewed as A Slow Horse Novella, The Drop (Slough House #5.5 - 2018) reviewed as Another Slow Horse Novella, The Catch (Slough House #6.5 - 2020) reviewed as Bachelor Caught in the Catch and The Last Dead Letter (Slough House #6.4 - 2021) reviewed as part of the Dolphin Junction: Stories collection of short stories as Six Stand-Alones, Four Oxfords & One Slough House Short. ( )