What Is The Plot Of Bad Actors Novel?

The slowest of the MI5 bunch are at it again in Mick Herron’s ‘Bad Actors’, the 8th installment in the highly acclaimed ‘Slough House’ series of novels. As ever, the slumbering denizens of the dilapidated Slough House are mysteriously drawn into a high-stakes game of espionage and/or political intrigue which threatens to destroy them all. And by ‘them all’ I mean the misfit bunch of failed spies who were dumped at Slough House because they’ve managed to fail at being properly bad for MI5. The plot for ‘Bad Actors’ begins with the disappearance of a senior Downing Street political adviser and roughly follows the slow horses of Slough House as they attempt to unravel a complex knot of corruption, intrigue and deception whilst – as always – largely failing to adhere to the rules that are intended to govern their behavior.

Sharp and tense in equal measure, 'Bad Actors' is another clever spy novel from Herron. Lamb is, as ever, foul-mouthed and greatly fun to read, but other members of the Slough House team are given their chance to shine too, not least the perpetually unlucky Cartwright and Shirley Dander, who uses her particular set of skills to investigate various leads. Winding its way through themes of power, corruption and the insane bureaucracy of government, Herron keeps the pages churning at a rate that belies the complexity of what is happening. And just when you think you have reached the end of the book, he throws in a few more questions, and you can't wait for the next installment of his lovable misfits.

What I think is a really good metaphor for the story is that the intelligence community is a play with actors playing different roles. And some of the “actors” are bad in that they fail at their assigned role by starting to follow a different script. But more than that, they start to lose sight of what their real life is and start to play their assigned role all the time. A deep-cover agent could be an example of this, he may eventually forget which side he’s on. A politician could be playing the role of a good, loving patriot, and slowly but rationally start to become a traitor to his country. This isn’t a story about trying to figure out who the bad guy is. It’s a story that is trying to diagnose a sort of disease, and that disease is a result of the intelligence community trying to function as a system of deception. It’s a really deep and philosophical novel for a genre, but it’s really good.

This is a satirical plot, and I think it’s better if you read it that way. The title ‘Bad Actors’ is ironic, and the worst actors in the book are the ones following the system to the letter. These are ambitious ministers, lawyers using procedure as a shield, and spies acting as instructed without ever questioning the bigger picture. The real ‘bad actors’ are the ones trying to disrupt the status quo and are thwarted by corrupt institutions that, in our modern world, reward conformity and punish integrity. It’s a very funny and very bleak read, with dry, deadpan humor that is often buried in pretentious bureaucratic language and satirical expose.