Espionage. Blackmail. Revenge. Cunning. Slapstick. State secrets dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. All this and more in a tight package of five novellas by Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Slow Horses. From the troubled recruitment of a new MI5 informant to a botched information transfer, Herron's novellas capture the drama, humor, and high stakes of everyday life in the world of spycraft, a world rife with both legends and secrets, where thrill-seeking and loneliness are ubiquitous and deadly, and where the lines between friends, enemies, and lovers are perpetually blurred by circumstance and subterfuge.

For fans new and old, Standing by the Wall is an excellent introduction to the extended literary universe of Mick Herron's Slow Horses. Collection includes: The List, The Marylebone Drop, The Catch, The Last Dead Letter, and Standing by the Wall.