The Slow Horses of Slough House

Many espionage stories' protagonists fall into one of two categories... The first category is the espionage professional: Ian Fleming's James Bond, Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon, and John LeCarre's George Smiley all come to mind. Cool, calm, collected, they are trained and paid to do their nation's dirty work. At the other end of the spectrum is the unwitting amateur that finds themselves thrust into a situation which they are seemingly ill-equipped to deal with. Eric Ambler's and Alan Furst’s novels often featured such main characters. Bridging--or perhaps stumbling into--the gap between espionage professionals and bumbling amateurs are the "Slow Horses" of Mick Herron's Slough House series. They are failed MI5 agents who have been sent to Slough House, where they while away the hours and days performing the most menial of administrative tasks. The agency hopes they will lose all hope and quit of their own accord, saving it the time and expense of firing them. Presiding over the Slow…