Robert Hobden
Who they are
A columnist the Service has blacklisted from every paper he once wrote for. Once the Telegraph’s crime reporter, author of a Manchester drugs series, a former Communist Party member, and — after the leak of a membership list — a British Patriotic Party figure. He is under surveillance at Slow Horses’s start and does not know how completely.
What they want
The story that will make him matter again. He believes the Voice of Albion kidnapping is a Service operation, and he is right, which is the trap: being right is what makes him useful to people who intend to use him.
Book 1 — Slow Horses
- C01 — His rubbish is collected overnight; his memory stick is swapped at Max’s café while he reads his papers.
- C04 — Hears the television report, recognises the story he has been waiting for, and leaves his newspapers behind.
- C05 — The boy on screen, unhooded. His files turn out to contain only pi.
- C07 — Nearly killed by a fake achiever outside his flat; flees the shooting.
- C09 — Walks to Peter Judd’s house and tries to trade the truth plus a photograph of Judd giving a Nazi salute beside Nicholas Frost. Judd slaps him and agrees to “see to it”.
- C17 — Killed in a hit-and-run; Judd pays tribute on the radio.
Tells
Newspapers folded and refolded, the routine of keys, phone, wallet and keyring. He is written as a man performing a version of himself that no longer convinces anyone.
Open questions
Whether the pi files were a Service joke at his expense, a stolen dummy, or both. How much of his last week he understood.