I am late to the party. I’m not a purist who is going to tell you that the books are way better than the TV series, that I read the books when they first came out. Well actually, before they came out because I know somebody who knows somebody.

No. I watched the “Slow Horses” show on Apple TV+, enjoyed it, and belatedly thought that I should read the book [affiliate link] to see how similar they are.

Pretty similar, it turns out.

The “slow horses” are MI5 failures, where they put people who make big mistakes, hoping they’ll quit rather than have to be sacked. They’re a mis-matched and idiosyncratic group and – it’s barely a spoiler to say – they’re maybe not as useless as we’d been led to believe. The plot involves a terrorist plan and lots of twists and turns.

It took me a little while to get into the writing. It’s not bad, just different to what I’ve been reading recently. But after that, it was a fun read. As you might expect, it’s a bit of a page turner.

What surprised me is how close it is to the TV version. Sure, the characters are not exactly the same but they’re pretty close. You can imagine the characters reading some of the lines. This is partly because the book is written in a world where people are used to shows like Slow Horses. It’s not exactly a script, but some parts are structured how you’d do it on screen. The actors are also great, demonstrating great, well, acting and casting.

The book comes to a largely satisfying end… and then keeps going for another chapter, setting up the books that follow. There’s a saying in selling: “don’t talk past the sale.” But that’s a minor criticism in an otherwise entertaining read.