From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The List (Slough House, #2.5)

Mick Herron

Start date: January 10, 2019

Finish date: February 9, 2019

Discussion: Buddy reads

Why we're reading this: Next in the Slough House series, which some of us are reading together.
[close] Next in the Slough House series, which some of us are reading together.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 468 topics — 9,054 comments total

Buddy reads

* Starting/joining in with buddy reads
By Judy · 1341 posts · 372 views

last updated 8 minutes ago

* White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Shetland #2) (August/Sept 25)
By Susan · 29 posts · 12 views

last updated Sep 04, 2025 12:17PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 29, 2018 Susan rated it really liked it

This Slough House novella is listed as 2.5 in the series, putting it between “Dead Lions,” and “Real Tigers.”

John Bachelor is an MI5 agent on the ‘milk round.’ That is, he is a handler for a number of agents that the service is taking care of. One is the elderly German, Dieter Hess; an aged informant, living out his days in St Albans. Hess is an elderly man who likes to talk to Bachelor, play his music, smoke his cigars and spend his time reading. When he is found dead, sitting comfortably in h ...more

24 likes · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2022 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2023 Carolien rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, 2023

An old German spy who retired to England after the Cold War and has been receiving a pension from MI5 is found dead. There is nothing suspicious about his death until it appears that he had a bank account that his handler, John Bachelor, had missed. The effort to trace the funds introduce us to J.K Coe in his first week on the job as an analyst who will play a more important role in Nobody Walks. A twist in the tale that sets up The Drop. A good use of a short story to introduce characters for f ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 15, 2019 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

Short but satisfying novella - lots of the bone dry humor I expect from this author. Not a lot of Jackson Lamb, the slovenly, rude leader of Slough House (where screw-ups from MI5 land), but a tantalizing glimpse; a peek of Catherine Standish and Lady Di, too.

Here, middle-aged suit John Bachelor, whose job it is to basically babysit old assets for MI5, is on his milk rounds checking on his elderly “clients”. He finds Dieter Hess, a former East German spy, dead in his apartment; unfortunately, L ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2017 Lemar rated it really liked it

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction, brit-lit, 2010-s

I was into this witty, intriguing spy thriller when it abruptly ended.

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2019 Jill rated it really liked it

Shelves: mick-herron

Read in one sitting, but still very good. It introduces two more characters , which I am assuming may turn up again in further books, possibly one more than that. Jackson Lamb appears in two scenes, being his usual vulgar lovable (?)self.

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2019 Sandy rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-detective-grp, mystery, novella-length, rread-2019

Wonderful short addendum to the Slough House series. Should be a full book but I'm hoping the story continues in following novellas, or even in the main series. I want more. ...more

1 like · Like · see review