Mick Herron


Mick Herron is a British mystery and thriller novelist. He is the author of the Slough House series, early novels of which have been adapted into the Slow Horses television series. He won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger for Dead Lions and the Diamond Dagger in 2025 for lifetime achievement.

Early life

Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in English. He is one of six children; his father was an optician and his mother a nursery-school teacher.

Career

Herron was a subeditor at IDS Employment Law Brief, a trade journal on U.K. employment law, "I wrote about people who were having a bad time at work".
Herron commuted from Oxford to London daily, returned home around 6 p.m., and wrote for an hour. In 2002, Herron had an office on a floor with few people, eventually hot-desking on a floor with hundreds of people. Herron resigned from IDS Employment Law Brief in 2017.
"The larger the organization was that I worked for, the less concern it had for the people working for it." - Mick Herron

In 2003, Herron published his first novel, Down Cemetery Road. It was the first volume in a four-book series about Zoë Boehm, an Oxford private detective.
"I wanted to write about a bunch of people who were forced to work together who were thwarted by life and having a terrible time with their careers" - Mick Herron

After the 7 July 2005 London bombings, as a London-Oxford commuter, he wanted to write about the UK security services.
In 2010, he began the Slough House spy series with the first volume Slow Horses. The series concerns MI5 agents who have been exiled from the agency mainstream for various failures. The second volume, Dead Lions, published in 2013, won the Crime Writers' Association 2013 Gold Dagger. Herron has stated that the lead character, Jackson Lamb, was influenced by Reginald Hill's Andy Dalziel., the series includes eight novels, plus several associated novellas, and events in related novels. Early volumes have also been adapted for television as Slow Horses.
Slow Horses was published by Constable in 2010, but the firm declined the opportunity to publish the next book in the series in the United Kingdom due to disappointing sales of its predecessor. Soho Press published the Slough House novels in the United States, and John Murray started republishing the series in the UK from 2015.
Herron's short stories have been regularly published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and some are collected in the book All the Livelong Day, published in 2013.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.

''Zoë Boehm'' series

  1. Down Cemetery Road
  2. The Last Voice You Hear
  3. Why We Die
  4. ''Smoke and Whispers''

The ''Slough House'' series

The Slough House series comprises nine novels and five novellas:
NumberTitleFirst publishedFormatISBN

Standalone novels

Although not part of the Slough House series, Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours use some of the same characters and provide some character backstory. In story terms, Reconstruction is set before Slow Horses, whereas Nobody Walks comes after The List and before Spook Street. The Secret Hours is set around the time of or after Bad Actors but includes a section set well before the series begins.
  • Reconstruction
  • Nobody Walks
  • This Is What Happened
  • ''The Secret Hours''

Short story collections

Dolphin Junction features five standalone crime fiction stories complemented by four mystery stories featuring Zoë Boehm and Joe Silvermann. It also includes tales with Jackson Lamb of Slough House. Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas includes all novellas in the Slough House series published as of 2022. In story terms, Proof of Love, Mirror Images and The Other Half are set before Down Cemetery Road, whereas What We Do comes after Why We Die.
  • All the Livelong Day
  • *"All the Livelong Day"
  • *"The Usual Santas"
  • *"Proof of Love"
  • *"Mirror Images"
  • *"Lost Luggage"
  • Dolphin Junction
  • *"Proof of Love"
  • *"Remote Control"
  • *"Luggage"
  • *"Mirror Images"
  • *"Junction"
  • *"An American Fridge"
  • *"The Other Half"
  • *"All the Livelong Day"
  • *"The Last Dead Letter"
  • *"The Usual Santas"
  • *"What We Do"
  • Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas
  • *The List
  • *The Drop
  • *The Catch
  • *The Last Dead Letter
  • *''Standing by the Wall''

Adaptations

The Slough House series has been adapted for television under the name Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, with the first six-part season, based on the book Slow Horses, streamed on Apple TV+ from 1 April 2022. The second season, based on Dead Lions, was filmed back-to-back with the first and premiered on 2 December 2022. It was announced in June 2022 that further seasons, adapting Real Tigers and Spook Street, had been greenlit. Season 3, based on Real Tigers, premiered on Apple TV+ 29 November 2023. Season 5, based on London Rules, premiered on Apple TV+ on 24 September 2025.
An Apple TV+ adaptation of Down Cemetery Road starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson was released in October 2025. The second season was announced by Apple TV on December 12, 2025.

Awards

Herron won the 2025 CWA Diamond Dagger in 2025.

Personal life

Herron lives in Oxford, England. He enjoys playing squash. His partner is Jo Howard, a "headhunter for the publishing industry" and "leadership development consultant", formerly a commercial director at Waterstones Booksellers.