Bad Actors

As much as I enjoy Mick Herron’s Slough House books, I’ve never been 100% taken with one. The dialogue is fabulous and I love the way Jackson Lamb is always two steps ahead of everyone. But sometimes the plots get so labyrinthine that I can’t tell who’s betraying whom or whether I’ve just read about a double or triple or even fourple cross.

Keeping up with what’s going on is seldom easy and I don’t think Mick Herron is all that concerned with making it so. He seems to be having too much fun with his jokes and the characters - I do like Roddy Ho’s inexhaustible, and totally misguided, self-confidence – to stop to wonder whether his story is actually making sense. The writing often overwhelms the narrative.

But with Bad Actors, I could actually follow the plot, and everything clicks nicely into place by the end. The jokes are good. There’s a terrific, chaotic punch-up at a rehab clinic. We still don’t get to find out why Jackson Lamb ended up in charge of the slow horses. And Roddy Ho is as Roddy Ho as ever.

Good book.