Mick Herron Books in Order

Recovering from a near fatal poisoning, River Cartwright looks into a missing book from his late grandfather’s library, only to find it tied to a brutal secret from the Troubles. As the scandal threatens to surface, Slough House and Diana Taverner are dragged into a reckoning.

A political inquiry called Monochrome is quietly winding down when a stray file lands on the desks of two weary civil servants. Inside is the buried record of a botched MI5 operation in 1990s Berlin, and their decision to probe it reopens long-suppressed betrayals.

It is Christmas at Slough House and the slow horses are counting the minutes to the pub. Jackson Lamb hands tech whiz Roddy Ho an odd job doctoring an old photograph, a small favour that stirs up buried memories and shows a rare, uneasy sentimentality.

This collection gathers Herron’s short crime fiction, from twisty stand-alone tales to stories featuring Oxford investigators Zoë Boehm and Joe Silvermann and a glimpse of Jackson Lamb’s past. Expect uneasy marriages, missing spouses, motorway mysteries and sharp, unsettling turns in every piece.

When star government forecaster Sophie de Greer disappears, her ruthless mentor, political fixer Anthony Sparrow, tries to use the scandal to bring MI5 to heel. Diana Taverner fights for survival, and the slow horses stumble into a struggle that reaches to the top of power.

Brexit politics and internal paranoia push Slough House even further into the cold. The unit’s records vanish from official systems, its members start dying in suspicious accidents, and Jackson Lamb has to work out whether this is coincidence or a quiet, sanctioned purge.

John Bachelor, a burnt-out “milkman” who checks on retired agents, is barely staying ahead of his debts by living in a dead man’s flat. When someone uncovers his secret, he is blackmailed into a perilous errand that quickly spirals beyond his control.

Winter closes in on the Welsh hills as the slow horses chase rumours of a missing teenager with ties to one of their dead. While new recruit Lech Wicinski hunts the source of his own disgrace, old enemies resurface and the countryside becomes a killing ground.

Maggie Barnes is invisible in London, a lonely mailroom worker in a vast office tower. When a man claiming to be from MI5 recruits her to plant spyware on her employer’s computers, one terrifying night of espionage turns into a long, suffocating trap.

Old Cold War veteran Solomon Dortmund spots a suspicious handoff in a Marylebone café and reports it to John Bachelor, the down-on-his-luck minder of retired spies. What looks like a minor bit of tradecraft soon pulls them into a much larger operation.

A series of apparently random terror attacks puts Britain on edge while ambitious politicians circle a weakened prime minister. At the same time someone keeps trying to kill Slough House’s resident hacker, Roddy Ho. Lamb’s misfits follow both trails and find the two crises are entangled.

A suicide bomber strikes a crowded shopping centre just as River Cartwright’s grandfather, once a powerful spymaster, begins to slide into dementia. As secrets from David Cartwright’s past resurface, Slough House must stop further attacks and decide how far they will go to protect their own.

Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb’s sober, meticulous assistant, is kidnapped by a man from her past. To get her back, River Cartwright is ordered to break into MI5 headquarters and steal a classified file, pulling the slow horses into a deadly game of political blackmail.

Retired agent Dieter Hess dies quietly in London, but his secret second bank account screams trouble. John Bachelor, the weary MI5 handler who was meant to be watching him, has to find out whether Hess was a double agent before his own career is destroyed.

Tom Bettany thought he had left the Service and his violent past behind. News that his estranged son has fallen to his death from a London balcony drags him home, where grief turns into suspicion and a relentless search through gangland, tech money and old enemies.

After a washed up former spy dies on a London bus, Jackson Lamb suspects murder and a link to Cold War legend Alexander Popov. The slow horses’ clumsy investigation uncovers Russian sleeper agents, a suspicious village and an operation that official MI5 would rather ignore.

Five tense stories of crime and suspense range from a walking holiday that turns into a nightmare at a remote farmhouse to a gang of shopping-mall Santas planning a robbery, plus clever Oxford cases for private investigator Zoë Boehm and partner Joe Silvermann.

Disgraced MI5 officer River Cartwright and his fellow 'slow horses' are exiled to Slough House to push paper under the toxic Jackson Lamb. When a student is kidnapped by a far right group, their forgotten unit sees a risky chance to matter again.

When a woman’s body is dragged from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker is called to Newcastle to identify it as her missing friend, private investigator Zoë Boehm. The face matches, but little else does, and Sarah’s search for answers becomes dangerously personal.

Armed and desperate, Jamie Segura storms into an Oxford nursery school and takes hostages, demanding to speak to Ben Whistler, an apparently harmless desk officer at MI6. As the siege unfolds, buried operations and old betrayals surface, forcing everyone present to choose a side.

Zoë Boehm is broke, tired and in no position to refuse a simple job: trace some stolen jewellery for a generous fee. Her hunt for small-time thieves pulls her into a tangle of grief, police corruption and violence that feels anything but routine.

Trying to keep her head down after a near fatal attack, Oxford private eye Zoë Boehm turns down a suspicious death case. When more people start falling from high places, she realises the accidents are linked and that someone wants the truth buried.

An explosion rips through Sarah Tucker’s quiet Oxford street, leaving two adults dead and a little girl missing. Frustrated by official silence, Sarah hires private investigator Zoë Boehm and uncovers a trail of lies that leads far beyond her leafy suburb.