Slow Horses - Mick Herron
It's interesting to see how the thriller genre has evolved in almost a decade.

At some point, I picked up a later book in this series. It was good enough for me to go back to the first, Slow Horses.

While not as vivid or hell-bent-for-leather as current releases by other thriller writers, Slow Horses has a more human element than most. (I'd say that Silva's work is the exception.) I very much appreciate the way Herron develops his characters, although I think he could've gotten by with fewer of them. Any time the regular characters number close to a dozen (or more), I tend to get confused. Figuring out which one is talking—his or her characteristics, their role—pulls me out of the story.

I also realize that writing about the thriller world involves a lot of profanity. But at some point, it becomes meaningless to me. I wonder if the author couldn't have conveyed his characters' feelings without resorting to the F bomb, perhaps finding a more original, realistic way to express frustation or surprise than resorting to the basic exclamation. A constant stream of profanity just gets tiresome, making me wonder about the intellect of the characters—most of whom have to be smart enough to survive a thriller story.

But these are minor complaints about a book that I read in one evening, and enjoyed. I look forward to seeing what Herron does with these characters in book 2.