Read it before you watch it

Slough House is where MI5 sends the agents who have failed too badly to remain useful but not badly enough to be dismissed. Under the magnificently rude Jackson Lamb, this mismatched group expects to spend its days on meaningless administrative work—until a kidnapping drags them back into active intelligence. The novel is cynical, funny and tightly plotted, with even more bite than its excellent television adaptation.

Prosecutor Rusty Sabich is assigned to investigate the murder of a colleague with whom he had a secret relationship. As the case turns towards him, he must navigate a justice system he knows intimately while confronting the evidence, betrayals and compromises surrounding the victim’s death. It is both a courtroom thriller and a morally complex study of obsession, ambition and reasonable doubt.

Jason Dessen is abducted while walking home and wakes in a life that is recognisably his—but fundamentally different. In this version of reality, the family he loves does not exist and the scientific career he abandoned has made him famous. His attempt to return home becomes a fast, emotionally grounded exploration of alternate lives, regret and the question of what makes one path worth choosing over every other possibility.