This post details the top Slough House Apple audiobook series listed in reading order including new releases. From The CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) Gold and Steel Dagger Award Winning author, Mick Herron.
For details of the all of the episodes in the Apple TV+ show starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, see my post below.
Top thrillers and mystery audiobooks are not just on Audible, for top mysteries on Apple Audiobooks and how to get Apple audiobooks, see below.
Slough House Apple Audiobook Series Order
Author: Mick Herron | UK Audiobook Narrator: Sean Barrett | US Audiobook Narrator: Gerard Doyle.
How do I get Apple audiobooks?
On your iPhone: Open the Books app, tap Audiobooks at the bottom of the screen. Here you can explore new and featured audiobooks, browse sections or search for a specific audiobook. To buy and download the audiobook, tap the price. Once paid for audiobooks will be stored in your Books app Library section. Navigate to an audiobook, then tap the cover to start playing it. To get audiobooks on your iPad or Mac: use the same method as for the iPhone except when you open the Books app and tap/click on the Audiobook Store link in the sidebar.
1. Slow Horses
Apple Audiobook Release: August 2010.
Plot: Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable.
They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it’s threatened that he’ll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself.
Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers’ connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda… [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Slow Horses on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
2. Dead Lions
Apple Audiobook Release: February 2014.
Plot: London’s Slough House is where disgraced MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their washed-up careers. Now they have a chance at redemption. An old Cold War-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. Slough House’s head honcho, the despicable, irascible Jackson Lamb is convinced Dickie Bow was murdered.
As the agents dig into the circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets that seem to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, who is either a Soviet bogeyman or the most dangerous man in the world. How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried? [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Dead Lions on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
2.5 The List
Apple Audiobook Release: July 2017.
Plot: Dieter Hess, an aged spy, is dead, and John Bachelor, his MI5 handler, is in deep, deep trouble. Death has revealed that the deceased had been keeping a secret second bank account – and there’s only ever one reason a spy has a secret second bank account.
The question of whether he was a double agent must be resolved, and its answer may undo an entire career’s worth of spy secrets. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to The List on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
3. Real Tigers
Apple Audiobook Release: March 2016.
Plot: London’s Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their spy careers pushing paper.
But when one of these ‘slow horses’ is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but also the highest authorities in the Security Service.
After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the slow horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House but of MI5 itself… [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Real Tigers on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
4. Spook Street
Apple Audiobook Release: November 2023.
Plot: Twenty years retired from the Intelligence Service, David Cartwright still knows where all the bones are buried. But when he forgets that secrets are supposed to stay hidden, there’s suddenly a target on his back.
The ‘Old Bastard’ raised his grandson to be a hero, not a slow horse. Now, far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is part of Jackson Lamb’s team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House. Which doesn’t mean he won’t ditch everything and go rogue when his grandfather comes under threat.
Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day, and knows better than most that this is no innocent old man. So when a panic button raises the alarm at Intelligence Service HQ, it’s Lamb who’s called on to identify the body. And it’s Lamb who’ll do whatever’s necessary to protect an agent in peril. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Spook Street on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
5. London Rules
Apple Audiobook Release: February 2018.
Plot: London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one…
Cover your arse.
Regent’s Park’s First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he’s facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat’s wife, a tabloid columnist, who’s crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who’s alert for Claude’s every stumble.
Meanwhile, the country’s being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone’s trying to kill Roddy Ho.
Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they’re about to rediscover their greatest strength – that of making a bad situation much, much worse.
It’s a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren’t going to break themselves. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to London Rules on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
5.5 The Drop (aka The Marylebone Drop)
Apple Audiobook Release: November 2018.
Plot: A Slough House novella from the ‘John le Carré of our generation’.
Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows he’s witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly, he sets in train events which will alter lives. Bachelor himself, a hair’s breadth away from sleeping in his car, is clawing his way back to stability; Hannah Weiss, the double agent whose recruitment was his only success, is starting to enjoy the secrets and lies her role demands; and Lech Wicinski, an Intelligence Service analyst, finds that a simple favour for an old acquaintance might derail his career.
Meanwhile, Lady Di Taverner is trying to keep the Service on an even keel, and if that means throwing the odd crew member overboard, well: collateral damage is her specialty.
A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret information.
It’s also what happens just before you hit the ground. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to The Drop (aka The Marylebone Drop) on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
6. Joe Country
Apple Audiobook Release: June 2019.
Plot: Like the ringing of a dead man’s phone, or an unwelcome guest at a funeral…
In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.
And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can’t ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.
This time, they’re heading into joe country.
And they’re not all coming home. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Joe Country on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
6.5 The Catch
Apple Audiobook Release: January 2020.
Plot: If life in the Intelligence Service has taught John Bachelor anything, it’s to keep his head down. Especially now, when he’s living rent-free in a dead spook’s flat.
So he’s not delighted to be woken at dawn by a pair of Regent’s Park’s heavies, looking for a client he’s not seen in years. John doesn’t know what secrets Benny Manors has stolen, but they’re attracting the wrong attention. And if he’s to save his own skin, not to mention safeguard his living arrangements, John has to find Benny before those secrets see the light.
Benny could be anywhere, provided it serves alcohol. So John sets out on a reluctant trawl through the bars of the capital, all the while plagued by the age-old questions: Will he end up sleeping in his car? How many bottles of gin can he afford at London prices?
And just how far will Regent’s Park go to prevent anyone rocking the Establishment’s boat? [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to The Catch on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
7. Slough House
Apple Audiobook Release: February 2021.
Plot: “Kill us? They’ve never needed to kill us,” said Lamb. “I mean, look at us. What would be the point?”
A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless response from the government has pushed the Service’s First Desk into mounting her own counter-offensive – but she’s had to make a deal with the devil first. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything she’s fought for…
Meanwhile, still reeling from recent losses, the slow horses are worried they’ve been pushed further into the cold. Slough House has been wiped from Service records, and fatal accidents keep happening. No wonder Jackson Lamb’s crew are feeling paranoid. But have they actually been targeted?
With a new populist movement taking a grip on London’s streets, and the old order ensuring that everything’s for sale to the highest bidder, the world’s an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass.
But the slow horses aren’t famed for making wise decisions. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Slough House on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
8. Bad Actors
Apple Audiobook Release: May 2022.
Plot: In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere.
A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5’s Regent’s Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent’s Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5’s radar.
Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation.
In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they’ll need to get their own act together before the final curtain. [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Bad Actors on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude
Apple Audiobook Release: November 2022.
Plot: Roddy Ho is used to being the one the slow horses turn to when they need miracles performed, and he’s always been Jackson Lamb’s Number Two. So when Lamb has a photograph that needs doctoring, it’s Ho he entrusts with the task. Christmas is a time for memories, but Lamb doesn’t do memories – or so he says. But what is it about the photo that makes him want to alter it? How would the slow horses cope if Roddy Ho didn’t exist? And most importantly of all, are the team having Christmas drinks, and if so, where?
Standing by the Wall offers a glimpse into the kind of seasonal merriment you might expect at Slough House, where the boss generally marks the festive season with an increase in hostilities. But then, this is the secret service, not Secret Santa. And the slow horses aren’t here to enjoy themselves.
Roddy Roddy Roddy? Ho Ho Ho! [Source: Apple Audiobooks]
*Listen to Standing by the Wall: A Slough House Interlude on UK Apple Audiobooks or US Apple Audiobooks.
Slow Horses Series on Apple TV+
For details of the Apple TV Crime series: Slow Horses Series & Episode Guide – Top British Thriller on Apple TV+.
More Top Mysteries & Thrillers on Apple Audiobooks
- Miss Marple BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Audio Dramas, starring June Whitfield.
- Charles Paris Radio Plays in Order starring Bill Nighy.
- Popular BBC R4 Mystery Dramas: Agatha Raisin – Series and Episode List.
- Hawthorne & Horowitz Mysteries including New Audiobooks.
- The Marlow Murder Club Books in Order by Robert Thorogood.
Don’t forget to check out my latest: Mysteries & Thrillers on Apple Audiobooks – Best New Releases and Series Lists. You might also like Best New Detective Comedy Fiction Podcasts 2023: Sherlock & Co.
More Top Thrillers & Detective Shows on Apple TV+
10 Best Crime Dramas, Mysteries and Thrillers on Apple TV+.
New True Crime Thriller on Apple TV+: Manhunt (March 2024).
2024 Crime Comedy on Apple TV about the Adventures of Dick Turpin (sort of!).
Bad Sisters – 2023 Dark Murder Mystery Comedy on Apple TV+.
Severance – Top New Crime Drama on Apple TV+ (June 2022).
Shining Girls – 2022 Apple TV+ Thriller.
Criminal Record – New Apple TV+ Crime Show, January 2024.
Don’t forget to check my latest Apple TV+ Mystery Shows – News and Reviews. Also check out top new crime shows on Amazon for 2024: Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Fargo Season 5.
*The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support this blog.
Follow on Facebook. Or subscribe to get the latest posts by email: