Sid Baker

Who they are

River’s office mate at Slough House: red-haired, competent, the one who gets sent out on the errands that turn out to be real operations. She joined the Service because of the 7 July bombings — she was temping in the City, heard Aldgate, and walked home in heels she still keeps.

What they want

To be doing the job rather than watching it. Her secret is that she was posted to Slough House to watch River Cartwright — which means somebody arranged his fall and wanted it observed.

Book 1 — Slow Horses

• C01 — Poses as a student at Max’s café, spills cappuccino over Robert Hobden’s newspapers, swaps his memory stick for a dummy, copies the files, and swaps the original back.
• C04 — Found the blog link; shares an office with River.
• C07 — Tells River she was sent to keep an eye on him, then is shot in the head during the confrontation outside Hobden’s flat.
• C08 — In surgery throughout; a bullet has taken a chunk out of her head.
• C17 — Dead. The hospital records have been sanitised; River keeps her hair-slide as the only proof she existed.

Tells

Coffee, jokes at River’s expense, and a habit of answering the question he did not ask. She is written as a person rather than a plot device, which is what makes her death land.

Open questions

Who sent her to watch River, and whether she ever reported on him. The novel answers “someone at the Park” and leaves the name to later books.