Mick Herron

Mick Herron (born July 11, 1963)^[1] is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, early novels of which have been adapted into the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger for Dead Lions.

Mick Herron
Herron at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh
Born	(1963-07-11) July 11, 1963 (age 61)
Occupation	Novelist
Education	Balliol College, Oxford
Genre	Spy fiction
Years active	2003 - Present
Notable works	Slough House (novel series) Dead Lions (2013)
Notable awards	Gold Dagger
Partner	Jo Howard
Website
Official website

Early life

Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in English.^[2][3][4] He is one of six children; his father was an optician and his mother a nursery-school teacher.^[5]

Career

Location of the fictional Slough House (Aldersgate Street, London)

In 2003, Herron published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road. It was the first volume in a four-book series about Zoë Boehm, an Oxford private detective.^[6]

In 2010, he began the Slough House spy series with the first volume Slow Horses. The series concerns MI5 agents who have been exiled from the agency mainstream for various failures. The second volume, Dead Lions, published in 2013, won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger.^[3] Herron has stated that the lead character, Jackson Lamb, was influenced by Reginald Hill's Andy Dalziel.^[7][8] As of December 2022^[update], the series includes eight novels, plus several associated novellas, and events in related novels. Early volumes have also been adapted for television as Slow Horses.

Slow Horses was published by Constable in 2010, but the firm declined the opportunity to publish the next book in the series in the United Kingdom due to disappointing sales of its predecessor. Soho Press published the Slough House novels in the United States, and John Murray started republishing the series in the UK from 2015.^[9]

Herron's short stories have been regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and some are collected in the book All the Livelong Day, published in 2013.

Bibliography

Zoë Boehm series

1. Down Cemetery Road (2003)
2. The Last Voice You Hear (2004)
3. Why We Die (2006)
4. Smoke and Whispers (2009)

The Slough House series

1. Slow Horses (2010)
2. Dead Lions (2013)
3. The List (2015 novella)
4. Real Tigers (2016)
5. Spook Street (2017)^[10]
6. London Rules (2018)
7. The Drop (US title: The Marylebone Drop) (2018 novella)
8. Joe Country (2019)
9. The Catch (2020 novella)
10. The Last Dead Letter (2020 novella)
11. Slough House (2021)
12. Bad Actors (2022)
13. Standing by the Wall (2022 novella)
14. Clown Town (announced, 2025)^[11]

Standalone novels

Although not part of the Slough House series, Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours use some of the same characters and provide some character backstory. In story terms, Reconstruction is set before Slow Horses, whereas Nobody Walks comes after The List and before Spook Street. The Secret Hours is set around the time of or after Bad Actors but includes a section set well before the series begins.

• Reconstruction (2008)
• Nobody Walks (2015)
• This Is What Happened (2018)
• The Secret Hours (2023)

Short story collections

Dolphin Junction features five standalone crime fiction stories complemented by four mystery stories featuring Zoë Boehm and Joe Silvermann. It also includes tales with Jackson Lamb of Slough House.^[12] Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas includes all novellas in the Slough House series published as of 2022. In story terms, Proof of Love, Mirror Images and The Other Half are set before Down Cemetery Road, whereas What We Do comes after Why We Die.

• All the Livelong Day (2013)
  • "All the Livelong Day"
  • "The Usual Santas"
  • "Proof of Love" (Zoë Boehm)
  • "Mirror Images" (Zoë Boehm)
  • "Lost Luggage"
• Dolphin Junction (2021)
  • "Proof of Love" (Zoë Boehm)
  • "Remote Control"
  • "Luggage"
  • "Mirror Images" (Zoë Boehm)
  • "Junction"
  • "An American Fridge"
  • "The Other Half" (Zoë Boehm)
  • "All the Livelong Day"
  • "The Last Dead Letter" (Slough House)
  • "The Usual Santas"
  • "What We Do" (Zoë Boehm)
• Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas (2022)
  • The List (2015)
  • The Drop (US title: The Marylebone Drop) (2018)
  • The Catch (2020)
  • The Last Dead Letter (2020)
  • Standing by the Wall (2022)

Adaptations

The Slough House series has been adapted for television under the name Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb,^[4] with the first six-part season, based on the book Slow Horses, streamed on Apple TV+ from 1 April 2022. The second season, based on Dead Lions, was filmed back-to-back with the first and premiered on 2 December 2022.^[13] It was announced in June 2022 that further seasons, adapting Real Tigers and Spook Street, had been greenlit.^[14] Season 3, based on Real Tigers, premiered on Apple TV+ 29 November 2023.^[15]

An Apple TV+ adaptation of Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson was announced in 2024.^[16]

Awards

• "Dolphin Junction"
  • Joint winner, Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award 2009
• Slow Horses
  • Longlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2010
  • Winner, USC Libraries Scripter Award 2023
• Dead Lions
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2014, for best thriller
  • Shortlisted for Macavity Prize for best novel, 2014
  • Winner, CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2013
  • Winner, Palle Rosenkrantz Award 2020
• Nobody Walks
  • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2015
• Real Tigers
  • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2016
  • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2016
  • Winner, Last Laugh Award, 2017
  • Winner, USC Libraries Scripter Award 2024
  • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2017
• Spook Street
  • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2017
  • Winner, CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2017, Spook Street
  • Shortlisted, British Book Awards, Crime and Thriller Book of the Year 2018
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2018, for best thriller
  • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2018
  • Winner, Last Laugh Award, 2018
• London Rules
  • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2018
  • Shortlisted for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2018
  • Shortlisted, Last Laugh Award, 2019
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2019, for best thriller
  • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2019
  • Winner, Capital Crime Best Thriller Award 2019
• Joe Country
  • Shortlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2020^[17]
  • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2020^[18]
• Slough House
  • Winner, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2022
  • Winner, Last Laugh Award, 2022
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2022, for best thriller
• Bad Actors
  • Longlisted, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2023
  • Shortlisted, Last Laugh Award, 2023
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2023, for best thriller
• The Secret Hours
  • Winner, Last Laugh Award, 2024
  • Shortlisted for Barry Award 2024, for best thriller
  • Shortlisted, International Thriller Writers award 2024
  • Shortlisted British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of the Year 2024
  • Shortlisted, Fingerprint Awards Book of the Year 2024
  • Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel 2024

Personal life

Herron lives in Oxford, England.^[3] He enjoys playing squash.^[19] His partner is Jo Howard, a 'headhunter for the publishing industry'^[20] and 'leadership development consultant',^[21] formerly a Commercial Director at Waterstones Booksellers.

References

1. "Mick Herron - IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
2. "Mick Herron (Author of Slow Horses)". Goodreads.com. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
3. "Dead Lions — The Crime Writers' Association". Thecwa.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
4. Higgins, Charlotte (15 January 2021). "Mick Herron: 'I look at Jackson Lamb and think: My God, did I write that? My mother reads this stuff!'". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
5. Lepore, Jill (28 November 2022). "Is Mick Herron the Best Spy Novelist of His Generation?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
6. "Zoë Boehm Thrillers". Mick Herron website. 16 February 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
7. Mick Herron. "Crime writer Mick Herron: 'I don't know my hero's backstory yet' | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
8. "If you read one spy novel this year, read Real Tigers". Spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
9. Nicol, Patricia (4 February 2018). "the UK's new spy master". The Sunday Times. London. pp. 20–21.
10. "Mick Herron". Mick Herron. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
11. "Mick Herron's Slow Horses To Gallop Back in "Clown Town"". Spybrary. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
12. "Dolphin Junction: Stories by Mick Herron: 9781641293020 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
13. "Apple's hit espionage drama "Slow Horses" debuts season two trailer". Apple.com. 19 October 2022.
14. "'Slow Horses' Renewed Through Season 4 at Apple TV+". The Hollywood Reporter. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
15. "'Slow Horses' Season 3 airing at Apple TV+". Apple TV+. 29 November 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
16. Otterson, Joe (16 April 2024). "Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson to Lead 'Down Cemetery Road' Series at Apple Based on Novel by 'Slow Horses' Author". Variety. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
17. "Harper, McKinty shortlisted for Theakston Old Peculier crime award". Books+Publishing. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
18. "Robotham shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger". Books+Publishing. 14 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
19. "10 Questions with Mick Herron |". Ethanjonesbooks.wordpress.com. 7 May 2013. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
20. Kellaway, Kate (10 September 2023). "Author Mick Herron: 'I'd have made an awful spy. I don't have a smartphone or wifi'". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
21. "Jo Howard". Retrieved 6 February 2024.

External links

• Official website
• Mick Herron Spybrary podcast interview
• Interview with Profile magazine|The dark(ly comic) side of MI5, Page by: Jim Sullivan – Profile
• BBC Radio 4 - Bookclub | Mick Herron: Slow Horses