What do you think?
Rate this book
The Harrow: The funny, gripping thriller shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2025
448 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2025
8 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2025
A little pedestrian and fairly predictable, and I sense the author - if enthusiastic about it in principle - hasn’t done a lot of research into how journalism works.
Interesting sections move too quickly, sometimes easy solutions appear out of nowhere. And conversely too much time is spent dragging out other sections that have predictable endings.
Love the concept, but the execution is weak.
Interesting sections move too quickly, sometimes easy solutions appear out of nowhere. And conversely too much time is spent dragging out other sections that have predictable endings.
Love the concept, but the execution is weak.
September 17, 2025
Slow Horses for a local newspaper …
Easy, reading, fun and quite clever as well. It does not pretend to be “more” than that I thought and hence the social commentary goes down a treat. The main character, John Salmon, editor of the eponymous Harrow, speaks so much like Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb that, even if his overall persona is not a copy, I could not but make the comparison with the Slough House series. Not necessarily a bad thing but, because of it, this book does not perhaps get all the credit it should. Also, not sure that Salmon’s absolute resistance to go online helped the narrative in any way. If anything , it felt a few years too late to be included. An enjoyable read nevertheless. If there are more “helpings”, as it is perhaps hinted at the end, I think I will probably go for them.
Easy, reading, fun and quite clever as well. It does not pretend to be “more” than that I thought and hence the social commentary goes down a treat. The main character, John Salmon, editor of the eponymous Harrow, speaks so much like Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb that, even if his overall persona is not a copy, I could not but make the comparison with the Slough House series. Not necessarily a bad thing but, because of it, this book does not perhaps get all the credit it should. Also, not sure that Salmon’s absolute resistance to go online helped the narrative in any way. If anything , it felt a few years too late to be included. An enjoyable read nevertheless. If there are more “helpings”, as it is perhaps hinted at the end, I think I will probably go for them.
December 13, 2025
I’m baffled why this book got such a low rating. I enjoyed it immensely and laughed out loud a few times. Great read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews