Atlantic County Library System

UnCovered review by Pam Saunders, ACLS Librarian

Mick Herron has been hailed as the successor to John Le Carré for his modern spy thrillers, and his long-running Slow Horses espionage series, focused on has-been MI-5 operatives and has recently been made into a popular television series. His mastery is not limited to novels, though, and his short fiction has been collected for the first time in the recently released DOLPHIN JUNCTION. The eleven stories include six stand-alone tales, four featuring a husband-and-wife private eye team named Joe and Zoe, and a tale from the past of the leader of the SLOW HORSES.

Herron is a master of dialogue, whether actual or internal, and the dialogue in all these stories is witty, wryly humorous, sardonic, and clever. He is also a master of plot, and try as one might to solve the mystery in each tale, Herron always serves up a plot twist or two that almost no reader will anticipate. Several of the plots cross over into the horror genre in ways reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe at his spookiest.

Perhaps the most hauntingly memorable selection is “Dolphin Junction,” where the narrator is neither reliable nor totally forthcoming. It starts simply enough, with a man who seems to be a loving husband who believes his wife has been abducted, but who cannot convince the police to investigate. As he investigates on his own, Herron leads the reader down a path of assumptions that results in a major case of literary whiplash as the truth is at last revealed.

For those who are already fans of the SLOW HORSES, learning a bit about Jackson Lamb’s days as a “joe” in the field in Cold War Berlin and the reappearance of brilliant archivist Molly Doran is the real draw of this collection. The cagey and clever banter between the two, often studded with double-entendre, will elicit a smile at the same time it often forces one to re-read passages to get the hidden joke. Herron lets the reader in on just enough spy craft to make the story seem plausible, without turning the tale into a primer on “How to Be a Spook.” And as he usually does, Herron confronts the reader with the moral ambiguity that lies at the heart of espionage and the individuals caught up in its practice.

And just in time for the holiday season, there is “The Usual Santas,” a tale in which the addition of an extra mall Santa to the usual eight leads to a philosophical conversation in their Christmas Eve breakroom celebration and wind-down. Who or what is the real Santa and how does any Santa handle the conflict between what he represents and the commercialism that the mall where the eight work represents. The ending features yet another about-face, leading to a humorously satisfying ending.

These short reads do not demand an ongoing commitment, making them perfect to read one at a time during a hectic time of year when a longer work with a complex plot and many characters might not suit. For those readers not yet familiar with the Slow Horses series, you have that to look forward to in the new year.