Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron

I'm a HUGE fan of the Slow Horses book series and its TV adaptation. I recently discovered that author Mick Herron had a series that predates Slow Horses, and it was also getting a show on Apple TV. How could I not give it a try?

Down Cemetery Road was Herron's first book, and honestly, it shows. It's a good plot with good characters, and sprinkled throughout are his wonderful turns of phrase and literary magic tricks. The problem here is the pacing, which is terrible. At times, it felt like work reading it. I will say the end was satisfying, but it came at least 50 pages too late.

The Slow Horses seasons have been very faithful adaptations of the books. I hope the Down Cemetery Road series takes a few more liberties with the source material. Inside this book is a good story that needed a few more rounds of editing. Hopefully, the TV show fixes the pacing issues.

There are three more books in the Zoe Boehm series. Will I be back? Hard to say. For now, it's back to Slough House for me. This book gets a maybe generous three outta five stars from me.