What happens to spies that make mistakes? If the mistake doesn't make headlines then maybe they are demoted and sent to a hidden corner of the MI5 to do as little damage as possible. This book opens up that place and shows you the people trying to make a difference, still.

Slow Horses, Mick Herron, author; Gerard Doyle, narrator
Slough House is the place where fallen intelligence agents land. It is run by a curmudgeon, named Jackson Lamb. Everyone assigned there has a story to tell and a secret. Their story is one of failure, of an error in judgment, either intentional or unintentional; it is a story of mistakes that are sometimes not of their own making. The reason for their banishment doesn’t matter, only the result, only the mistake. Once written, it can never be erased.
The “higher-ups” at MI5, the ones who pull the weight, they are all schemers. They always have a plan, a way out to protect their image or an escape to start a new life. They are the masters of cover-ups and frame-ups and also the victims of same.
When an MI5 agent makes an unforgivable mistake, even in a training exercise, he is tossed into Slough House where he will remain until he withers away. He will bide his time doing nothing important, pushing paper, until he retires or quits. The slow horses of Slough House are essentially banished from the hierarchy of intelligence work, the only thing that means anything to them. Often, they do act like the Keystone Cops, but most often, they want to do the right thing. Some of them don’t even know why they have been placed at the end of the rope, but they are so demoralized by their demotion to Slough House that they are easily compromised and can be persuaded to engage in a cover-up that will compromise others, though unfairly. They justify their collusion by their need to feel like an integral part of the intelligence industry again, or to prevent being tossed from it on to the garbage heap of history. They know that they are just being used, but they are using the system to survive in it, as well.
When a seemingly random teenager, Hassan, who turns out not to be a random teenager, disappears for what seems to be no apparent reason, other than terrorists wanting to make a point, MI5 is drawn into the investigation. Somehow, defying reality, so is Slough House. Can any reader guess the reason? I did not, at first, but some of you may be wiser.
Anyway, the teen is threatened with beheading in 48 hours, but no demands are made for his release, so the fear is that it will occur no matter what. When it turns out that he is related to a person of some stature, the intensity of the investigation increases. River Cartwright, was also seemingly chosen for failure at random, but It turns out that there is more to his story than meets the eye, as well. Framed by his friend known as “spider”, he watches own star fade as Spider’s rises. For some reason, River suspects that this teen has been caught up in an op being conducted by the agency in order to create positive publicity which will occur when they sweep in and rescue the teenager unharmed. Which genius thought up that plan?
When the plot thickens and bodies pile up, the plan goes awry. Who lives and who dies becomes irrelevant as nothing seems more important than the cleanup and coverup since the teen might not survive, after all. How have both River and Hassan’s lives been challenged or enhanced by a powerful relative? Does clout play an important role in their lives? Are they both inherently good people? Is justice ever done and do we ever really learn the whole truth about the events in our lives that have the power to alter the trajectory we travel?
Slough House is inhabited by the “slow horses”, called that because they are thought not to be bright enough to serve the needs of the agency, but are not bad enough to be fired, so they are farmed out to pasture in the hope that they will quit.
The dialogue in the book is rich with humor, and if the world today wasn’t spinning out of control with conspiracy theories that turned out to be true, created by the “higher-ups” with clout, it would be even funnier to us than it is.
When the reader realizes that the losers rise to the occasion, wanting to do the right thing, as the winners sink to lower and lower levels of chicanery and dishonesty, the hypocrisy is exposed, but it is revealed with so much humor behind it as if even though the good are more evil than those believed to be evil, it is no big deal. In the end, the ship will right itself.
In the world today, does the same situation and atmosphere exist? There are so many who are thumbing their nose at people they believe are less virtuous than they are, yet those same people with their noses in the air, lack any virtue whatsoever. This is a book to read and enjoy. With its many themes, it is also a book to ponder and discuss afterwards. Betrayals are commonplace, backroom deals are the norm, and survival is the end game. Is what we see or what we are told to see more true or more false? Is the absolute entire truth ever told?