Down Cemetery Road: Zoe Boehm Thrillers 1 Paperback – 6 August 2020

The plot can be summarized largely without spoilers. It centers on Sarah Tucker, a discontented Oxford housewife, who becomes intrigued, and then obsessed, with the disappearance of a young girl who was living in a nearby house that suddenly exploded, killing two adults. Though full of self-doubt (a theme that is perhaps explored at too much length), she embarks on a search for the girl. Zoe Boehm, a private detective and the nominal heroine of the four Oxford series, makes only cameo appearances until quite far into the book, but whenever she emerges from the background, she electrifies the narrative with her "no nonsense" intelligence.Readers familiar with the Slough House series should be able to see much of Herron's barbed wit already on display in this novel. Nonetheless, because Herron concentrates here much more closely on a single character and her considerable psychological struggles, rather than on the panoply of varied players in Slough House (no Jackson Lamb or Roddy Ho here), the result is perhaps less satisfying. On the other hand, the story itself is a very good one, with lots of unexpected twists right up to the end. And the occasional spurts of real violence certainly do anticipate those in Slough House.

This is a different kind and different tone of spy novel from the later Slough House series that has now spawned a tv show. ‘Down Cemetery Road’ is a savage, brutal tale in which the spies are despised and their targets in constant danger. In the battle between protecting a nation and the freedom of its citizens narrator Mick Herron is firmly on the side of those battling the faceless bureaucrats.Sarah Trafford (nee Tucker) is in her home when a neighbouring house blows up. Thus starts her search for the one survivor of the blast, a four year old named Dinah. After a false start she meets up with an ex-soldier and heads for Scotland where the bureaucrats have set a trap and a psychopath is on the same trail.Sarah has a complicated past, a marriage going wrong and a listless life. But she is resourceful, sharp, not to be underestimated and as an enemy says, ‘brave’ and that proves important.Mr. Herron hints at her underlying strength early on and harps on about her ability to survive which gives the reader hope that she might although with Mr. Herron you never know. He’s not afraid to kill people off. Sarah’s a compelling character that while she appears doomed, you want desperately to succeed - albeit in a hopeless task.This novel doesn’t have the caustic wit that describes the declining Brexit-addled Britain of the Slough House series but as a critique of a society too fond of acts that are indefensible and the secrets that flow from them this novel is right on target.It was Mr. Herron’s first outing and it shows more than promise, it is a complete work in its own right. Without the satire that crops up in later novels, it’s purer, more brutal and hard to put down.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the first seven of Mick Herron’s outstanding Slough House series, the Zoë Boehm series was irresistible. As expected, the quality of the writing is of the highest order. Again, characters are skilfully drawn, plot lines developed intriguingly, psychological and emotional depths interestingly plumbed. Although not set in the dark and seedy world of espionage the Slough House books exposed, that arena does appear here and, again, Herron establishes strong motives for the violent confrontations that swirl around those secretly serving the nation. The central character in this book, bored and frustrated Sarah Tucker, and those she encounters are swamped by events far beyond any previous experience and in their struggles to overcome lethal threats in unfamiliar surroundings they grow and are continually engaging. Although a significant character here, Zoë Boehm comes fully on-stage only in the last few chapters of Down Cemetery Road. She is, however, the one most suited to carry more tales on her shoulders, presumably why Herron has chosen to develop her as the central character of this new series. All the skills Herron displays in the other books of his that I have read are again present, although there is not as much of the dark humour that enlivens the Slough House books. Maybe he will choose to allow this engaging quality to emerge as the series develops. Either way, I am eager to read more.

Very different from the Slough House series. I think that Zoe could have featured a bit more/earlier but it's the first in the series

Don’t you hate it when you get obsessed by someone and accidentally wind up in a chase from a shadowy government department and its rogue agents, entrusting your life to a former soldier/nerve gas Guinea pig, and having the day saved by a cool as a cucumber, slightly cynical, world-weary middle aged woman?So does Sarah.But this wittily written book by the author of the celebrated Slow Horses series, takes the reader along on a ride for Sarah’s life - and that of a child she thought she glimpsed once.