London Rules, the fifth book in Mick Herron’s beloved series of spy novels, is a standout to fans like me for several reasons — one of which is that it finally answers a lingering mystery I’m sure is bedeviling many fans of Slow Horses, the books’ acclaimed Apple TV+ adaptation: Just how exactly did Jackson Lamb, the philistine HR nightmare of a spymaster, wind up on MI5’s island of misfit toys known as Slough House?
Some… other things also happen in the book, which will form the basis of the Apple show’s fifth season coming sometime next year. Random terror attacks are rocking the UK, while someone’s also trying to kill Roddy Ho, the big-headed IT specialist of Slough House. And over at MI5’s gleaming Regent’s Park headquarters, Lady Di Taverner is watching and waiting for a fatal slipup from First Desk Claude Whelan — the cringey bureaucrat who’s learning the difference between Moscow Rules (“watch your back”) and London Rules (“cover your arse”). The latter, Herron writes, were “devised in the corridors of Westminster, and the short version read: Someone always pays.”
Have I whet your appetite yet for the new season of the Apple TV+ show, which is still months away — and doesn’t even have a release window yet? Good, because you can actually enjoy the first teaser for the new season … right now! The teaser can be viewed in the tweet below, and it’s also hiding at the end of the Season 4 finale episode, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Here’s Apple’s description of the upcoming season: “In season five of Slow Horses, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, ‘London Rules’ should always apply.”
Honestly, the series remains far and away one of the best things available to watch right now on Apple’s streamer. The show continues to ratchet up its overall excellence with each new bite at the apple, pun intended, with Season 4 its best-written and most action-packed to date. Accordingly, the show made its Emmy debut last month during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, with Slow Horses creator and executive producer Will Smith honored for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the third season of the espionage thriller.
