“In Slough House, the London outpost for disgraced MI5 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 an outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process. Meanwhile, in Regent’s Park, Diana Taverner’s tenure as First Desk is running into difficulties. If she’s going to make the Service fit for purpose, she might have to make deals with a familiar old devil. And 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 the slow horses out to even the score.”
For the most part, book six in the Slough House series continues author Mick Herron’s deconstruction and recreation of the spy genre. He continues with the dark humor and snappy dialogue as themes started earlier in the series come forward. While, we got the back story of Lech “Alec” Wicinski in The Marylebone Drop, he becomes a full-time character here. There are a lot of plot threads that weave themselves through Joe Country, with Wicinski’s hunt for those who betrayed him only being part of this tale. It doesn’t help that Jackson Lamb sort of goads Wicinski on, or that he’s working in Ho’s office space. The book opens with the funeral of River’s grandfather, David, and with the expected arrival of his mother and the surprise visit from his ex-CIA Dad Frank Harkness (who tossed him over a bridge the last time they met).
But it’s Louisa who gets a good portion of the tale, as she’s contacted by Min’s former wife who needs her to find their missing son. With the help of Roddy Ho and ex-Dog Emma Flyte, Louisa heads to Pembrokeshire in Wales in search of the missing boy. Unknown to Louisa, is that River’s dad and 3 other European mercenaries are in Wales too.
A lot goes on here, and Lamb sees the plot unwinding too late, for his team is trapped in the most inclement of snowy and freezing weather and in a situation with much higher stakes than they are equipped to handle.
Finally, we begin to see the plans of Lady Di Taverner and what she seems capable of doing to consolidate her power as First Desk (the final pages, written long before the second Trump administration, are very prescient). She’s a thoroughly unlikable character, despite Herron’s attempt to make it look like she’s appalled at Peter Judd’s suggestion on how she can take complete control of MI6. So beneath the humor and sometimes silly actions, we see some serious consequences and sad losses. It's clear there’s a conspiracy in the works, one even Jackson Lamb may not survive.
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