Slow Horses

London Rules
Mick Herron

Laura and I have been watching "Slow Horses" on Apple TV, based on Mick Herron's Slough House spy novels. The show is not a classic, but it's pretty good, mostly because of Gary Oldman's portrayal of Jackson Lamb, the profane, acerbic, abusive, flatulent, chain-smoking, burnt-out, brilliant, and fallen MI5 spymaster. Laura gave me a recent novel from the series for Christmas, and I devoured it in about a day. Funny and thrilling, Herron's storytelling is something of a cross between le Carré and Elmore Leonard– you may have your doubts about that, but Herron proves it can be done. Oldman is so perfect in the role that I heard his voice throughout my reading– normally I find that an annoyance, but not in this case. Recommended.

Snow
John Banville

It's County Wexford, Ireland, 1957, and the "popular" parish priest has been murdered and disfigured in a rather rococo fashion. It won't be very long before you figure out that Father Tom had some moral lapses, to put it mildly, and made a few enemies. Banville's Protestant detective St. John Strafford is an appealing outsider protagonist, and the story unfolds nicely, even if some of it is a bit too predictable. Banville's prose is a pleasure to read.