‘Slow Horses’

Mick Herron’s 2010 novel Slow Horses is the first novel in a twelve book series. It’s also been adapted into a successful Apple TV series. If Len Deighton’s The Ipcress File is about class, Slow Horses is about misfits surviving work politics.

Where The Office poked fun at the workplace, Slow Horses explores it with a cynical dark humour. There’s an assortment of eccentric characters, including a disheveled departmental boss who eats heart-attack food, has disgusting personal habits, and throws in the occasional politically incorrect comment.

The key to Slow Horses is the bad luck character origin story and rooting for the underdog.

‘The Housemaid’

Freida McFaddens’s The Housemaid is a tense psychological mystery with a great plot twist. It’s an accessible, fun read. The movie is out and it is equally entertaining.

The story plays with genre conventions – working with and also subverting them. It’s a fresh take on The Girl on the Train meets 90s psychological mysteries. There’s also a contemporary #metoo vibe.

‘The Dog Stars’

Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars has that rare quality of combining a literary fiction feel with genre style action. The story is a thematic mix of the American outdoors and survivalism contextualised with the protagonist’s inner reflection and his search for personal meaning in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s also a canine companion story.

The audio book’s narration is really great (it’s read by Mark Deakins). The film adaptation of The Dog Stars is slated for an August 2026 release. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott.