UPDATE: Both US and UK covers for Bad Actors have now been released.
The book will be released via John Murrays new thriller imprint Baskerville. We see some slight adjustments from the style we’ve seen for the past several books.
The US cover via Soho Press stays simliar to what we’ve seen previously.
The book will be released in May of 2022.
August post –
Although still nearly a year away, we are beginning to see some details for the next book in the Slough House series come out, including details on new characters.
From the Penguin Random House page for Bad Actors –
Mick Herron, “the le Carré of the future” (BBC), dives deep into the world of modern politics, where it’s often the bad actors come out on top, with his usual thrilling wit and unnervingly prescient eye.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688506/bad-actors-by-mick-herron/
“Confirms Mick Herron as the best spy novelist now working.”
—NPR’s Fresh Air
A governmental think-tank, whose remit is to curb the independence of the intelligence service, has lost one of its key members, and Claude Whelan—one-time head of MI5’s Regent’s Park—is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to the Park itself, with Diana Taverner as chief suspect. Has Diana overplayed her hand at last? What’s her counterpart, Moscow’s First Desk, doing in London? And does Jackson Lamb know more than he’s telling?
Over at Slough House, with Shirley Dander in rehab, Roddy Ho in dress rehearsal, and new recruit Ashley Khan turning up the heat, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation . . .
There are bad actors everywhere, and they usually get their comeuppance before the credits roll. But politics is a dirty business, and in a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing are the norm, sometimes the good guys can find themselves outgunned.
Wow, very tantalizing. A new slow horse – Ashley Khan. Claude Whelan is back. There may be actual actors, not only nefarious ones. And no word on the cliffhanger from Slough House that everyone is wondering about.
We haven’t seen either the US or UK covers released yet, but keep checking back. As soon as they are released I will have an update here. Bad Actors has a listed release date of May 12, 2022 in the UK and May 10, 2022 in the US.
Dolphin Junction, Herron’s collection of short stories releasing in October will have to hold us over until then.
Special thanks to reader David Derbes who alerted me to the fact that a description was available.
Wow, fabulous! Simply CAN’T wait! I’ll have to hibernate until May… Mick Herron said it would be May when he replied to my email about a British Embassy worker accused of spying for the Russians recently thrown out of Germany. I’d been reminded about John Barber and Hannah Weiss – had to re-read the novellas.
I reckon Ashley Khan will be that Regent’s Park girl whose arm was broken by Lamb when they all met at Blake’s Grave (in Slough House). Will she bear a grudge against Lamb? Hmm – is the Pope Catholic?
Have You Seen This Headline?
https://www.essexlive.news/news/celebs-tv/gary-oldman-spotted-harwich-port-5381033?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
What I can’t understand is, why is Harwich or any port involved in Slow Horses or Dead Lions? Nothing remotely sea-worthy or even anything involving boats occurs in either story… The first time a ship is part of one of the stories is the “Dazzle Ship” on the Thames – and that’s in Spook Street, the FOURTH novel.
I know filmed versions of favourite books often go “Off Piste” but it’s beginning to give me a lowering sense of doom, in that it won’t be OUR Slough House and OUR Jackson Lamb…
Hi, Jeff. There is a brief review of Bad Actors at Publisher’s Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-64129-337-2. The reviewer calls it “terrific”.