Joe Country

The Guardian Best Crime Novels of 2019
The Spectator Best Books of 2019
Shortlisted for the 2020 Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel Award
Shortlisted for the 2020 CWA Gold Dagger

Praise for Joe Country

“Suspense, spycraft, dry wit and vulgar humor are all well-deployed in this satisfying work by Mr. Herron, whose style can accommodate everything from a tough action scene to a lyrical elegy.”
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

“Herron writes squeakingly well-plotted spy thrillers. More than that, he composes—at the rate of a pulpist—the kind of efficient, darkly witty, tipped-with-imagery sentences that feel purpose-built to perforate my private daze of illiteracy. More than that, he’s a world-bringer, the creator of a still-growing fictional universe with its own gravity, lingo, and surface tension.”
—The Atlantic

“Herron blends character, place and espionage into a riveting melange that I’ve only encountered in the best of John le Carré or Len Deighton . . . Read one and you’re hooked for the whole series.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Herron’s morbidly witty backdrop hosts incisive storytelling with a rich mix of engaging characters.”
—Financial Times

“John le Carré with an extra dose of dry humor.”
—Adam Woog, The Seattle Times

“A series that hits every mark—wicked, black humor, complex characters and breathless plotting.”
—The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

“Mick Herron is a master of misdirection. It’s a skill, it just so happens, that spies and their handlers require in abundance, and one that Herron wields with unerring effectiveness in his thrillers.”
—Daneet Steffens, CrimeReads

“The espionage series you should be reading right now.”
—Zoomer Magazine

“Though Joe Country is Mick Herron’s sixth novel in his Slough House series, set in Britain’s intelligence community, it stands on its own. Newcomers need not be familiar with the previous books, but this installment is so taut and witty, fans will be eager to go back and read from the beginning.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Mr. Herron is as mischievous as he is mesmerizing. Joe Country secures his place as one of the world’s top spy novelists.”
—Irma Heldman, Open Letters

“Droll dialogue, characters who wear their foibles proudly, and observations on the politics of potential vested interest in national security keep the pages turning. Herron solidifies his place as one of Britain’s top spy novelists.”
—Publishers Weekly 

 “A solid thriller buoyed as always by Herron’s mordant humor.”
—Booklist

Praise for London Rules

Shortlisted for the 2018 Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger
Shortlisted for the 2018 Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

“Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation.”
—Val McDermid

“Herron cleverly spins the templates of the spy thriller, and his style can bite with the wit of an Evelyn Waugh or Kingsley Amis.”
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

“[Herron] really is funny and his cynicism is belied, here and there, by flashes of the mingled tenderness and anger that seem to define Britain’s post-Brexit self-reflections.”
—Charles Finch, USA Today

“Scathingly funny.”
—Newsweek

“Slough House, in this winning series, is where incompetent or disgraced British spies spend their days on meaningless busywork. That is, unless they stumble into genuine espionage. Herron is a subtle stylist, and he strikes a perfect balance of big-hearted humor and thrilling spy stuff.”
—The Seattle Times

“Hilarious and suspenseful . . . Sharper than most espionage fiction being written today and manages to stay uncannily contemporary.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Praise for Mick Herron

“[Herron’s] cleverly plotted page-turners are driven by dialogue that bristles with one-liners. Much of the humor comes from Herron’s sharp eye for the way bureaucracies, whether corporate or clandestine, function and malfunction. The world of Slough House is closer to “The Office” than to 007.”
—The Associated Press

“The sharpest spy fiction since John le Carré.”
—NPR’s Fresh Air

“Compulsively readable, tightly plotted.”
—Los Angeles Times

“The best in a generation, by some estimations, and irrefutably the funniest.”
—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker