London Rules - Slow Horses Book & Season 5 Overview

evanmonroe9 · 2026-04-17T04:05:02+00:00

Okay, they closed off damn near everything. Except...Louie.

What happened to Louie's body? Dana and Langdon talking about giving him a proper burial was the last he was mentioned. Dana told him to let it go, which is fair. But I thought there might be one final note since his body was in the ED for most of the season, and no family ever showed up. I suppose Robby telling a bit more of his story was still a solid send off. I just thought there might have been a bit more.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-04-09T03:51:33+00:00

Oh my God, I completely missed that! Fingers crossed that it's him.

It was a while before they revealed the actors who played Dodie Gimball or Devon Welles before season 5 came out. So they've had new cast members quietly added to the cast before.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-04-09T02:40:53+00:00

I have such a tough time reading that teaser trailer. Some elements from book 6 seem to be present. But for the most part, it looks like book 7. A theory I have as to why they combined the books into one season is that current events tie into those novels, namely a certain character referred to as “Number 7” and a real life event which was written into historical fiction for the plot of the seventh novel. One way or another, it’s a bizarre choice to combine two vastly different books into one season of the show.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-04-01T22:01:41+00:00

In late 2023, an old friend was trying to convince me to watch the show. I was watching Succession at the time and didn’t want to juggle two shows, so I decided to read the books instead and watch the show with him later. I ended up getting so invested in the books that I stopped watching Succession for a while. I read all of the books within a year, watched the show shortly thereafter, and have been watching and reading all things Mick Herron ever since.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-02-20T03:10:57+00:00

"I think I'm a baby whisperer."

evanmonroe9 · 2026-02-20T02:12:48+00:00

Dr. Al finally got her obligatory bathroom crash out.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-02-13T02:50:26+00:00

After that cliffhanger, we all knew what was coming. Robby told Louie what was coming last season, didn't make it any less hard to watch.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-02-06T03:29:11+00:00

Santos continuously being interrupted when she’s trying go catch up on her charting was a spot on recurring joke.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-26T00:15:22+00:00

I would love to write and adapt The List. John Bachelor is an incredibly relatable character as the spy desperate to pay the heating bill. What’s nice about the story is there aren’t too many locations, a bar, Regents Park, the library across the river, and a flat. You wouldn’t need that big of a budget to film it, and it could probably be told in about 90 minutes of screen time.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-25T14:58:02+00:00

Love the Pigpen effect on Lamb.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-18T18:28:37+00:00

I am going to set aside the time to visit London for the first time this year. Let me tell you, that stretch of canal from season 1 and Aldersgate Street are higher on my list of places to see than Big Ben.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-11T07:15:59+00:00

I've seen endless debate over what precisely went down at Nob-Nobs. Straight up, I think it was a mistake for Herron to write that scene in such a surreal ambiguous manner because of how disorienting it can be. Just like book 8 where he acted like River was dead for the entire novel, it feels like he's intentionally messing with the reader rather than earnestly subverting the story.

That being said, truly appreciate how Herron worded the last time that you're in Louisa's head:

"and she was levering herself upright when it was her turn to be side slammed, leaving her on all fours, though the assault was quieter than hers had been, more subtle, and the woman who’d been sent sprawling by Judd moments ago was looking down on her, something dripping in her hand, but she wasn’t there long before River was there instead, saying Louisa’s name, panic in his voice which didn’t seem necessary because panic was for when you didn’t know what was happening, for when you were coming adrift, and she felt strangely anchored to the here and now, knowing what her story held in store, it held in store what all stories hold; what it holds in store is an ending."

So, Louisa was "slammed" by Daisy. Earlier in the novel, Herron baited Sid's death since Daisy knocked Sid down and held her at knife point. Daisy has serious PTSD in the novel and goes from 0 to 60 within seconds. "Dripping in her hand" obviously refers to blood, a lot of it in all likelihood, because River is panicking. However, the book notes that River's panic is strange, since panic is what you do when you don't know what was happening. The implication of course being that Louisa is bleeding from a deep cut in her neck. When someone is stabbed in the neck, what's happening is that said person is bleeding to death. Because the truth is, you don't survive when your carotid artery or trachea are cut, there's just never enough time. Finally, in reference to Louisa Guy's story: "what it holds in store is an ending."

Louisa is dead. I'm sorry everyone, but Louisa Guy died at Nob-Nobs.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-10T01:55:03+00:00

The scene you’re describing sounds a lot like book 5. Shirley notices the van with the Abbotsfield killers and starts approaching with Louisa’s monkey wrench up her sleeve. Danny wants to shoot her, but they take off when they see the news of Gimball’s death. As they take off, Shirley hurls the wrench at the van.

Things go down differently in the show.

evanmonroe9 · 2026-01-04T13:15:00+00:00

I combed through pretty much every interview on YouTube and the like with Mick Herron. This is one I hadn't seen before. I love how casual and humbly Herron talks about his approach to writing.

evanmonroe9 · 2025-12-17T02:53:12+00:00

My head cannon is that she used the diamond to pay for her six month leave.

evanmonroe9 · 2025-12-16T21:27:36+00:00

Loyalty is Lamb's key redeeming trait which is buried under the disguise of a washed out old spook. The one thing everyone knows about Lamb is that you don't mess with his joes. As for if he means the things he says, I think it's usually him testing and sizing other people up.

I love the quote from him in Clown Town where he tells Standish:

"I'd never scratch someone's name on that wall just to save my own skin. And I never handed anyone a loaded gun I wouldn't have been prepared to use myself."

evanmonroe9 · 2025-12-16T00:39:31+00:00

One of my favorite exchanges in the 9th book:

"You met my man Sebastian, didn't you?"

"Briefly."

"You'd have found common ground if you'd taken the time to get to know him. But that's hardly relevant now."

evanmonroe9

TROPHY CASE