Real Tigers: Slough House Thriller 3

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Roddy Ho is the computer whiz, uber-geek and the butt of everyone’s jokes, not just Lamb’s. He’s ineffectual, arrogant and completely unaware of his failings. When one of their own is kidnapped, the washed-up MI5 operatives of Slough House—the Slow Horses, as they’re known—outwit rogue agents at the very highest levels of British Intelligence, and even to Downing Street itself. Satire, verbal sparring and gunfights are deftly combined in a excellently written novel permeated by Herron’s sly, dry and very English sense of humour—rather as if Philip Larkin or Alan Bennett had had a go at spy fiction.”

Real Tigers by Mick Herron - AbeBooks Real Tigers by Mick Herron - AbeBooks

Herron’s strength is in examining at close hand the absurdities, conflicts, and dangers of the intelligence agency as an institution at the center of some of the most central conflicts in the 21st century.” What follows is a tightly-plotted novel in which each decision effects the standing of other members, but the ultimate goal is the survival of the Slough House division itself. Some will be lost along the way – theoretically for the greater good – and one misstep could be anyone’s last. The abduction of one of their own rouses the members of MI5’s dead-end Slough House ( Dead Lions, 2013, etc.) to action once more.The central conceit of the books is that MI5, like any large organisation, needs somewhere to place its most hopeless employees, and this place is Slough House, a building just around the corner from the Barbican Centre. They’re not allowed anywhere near MI5 HQ, which is referred to as Regent’s Park although the organisation is no longer based there. When one of their own is kidnapped, the washed-up MI5 operatives of Slough House—the Slow Horses, as they're known—outwit rogue agents at the very highest levels of British Intelligence, and even to Downing Street itself. Louisa Guy was sent to Slough House after she lost a tail involved in gun smuggling. She is one of the most competent agents and appears in every book. She and Min Harper had a brief but intense affair which ended in tragic circumstances. Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge are the odd couple, though they’re not even a couple. She was in comms at The Park before she laid out a co-worker, and also has addiction issues. He used to break down doors and carry a gun before his gambling problems compromised him.

Real Tigers - Mick Herron - Google Books Real Tigers - Mick Herron - Google Books

Kearney, meanwhile, has her hands full with the new home secretary, Peter Judd (a fantastic fictional creation that is so obviously meant to be Boris Johnson that Herron hasn’t so much nailed Johnson as crucified him to the wall), whose ambitions lie at 10 Downing Street and who knows having a tame director of MI5 will give him an edge. A]tour de force, in which virtually every single player—good guys, bad guys, all the turncoats and in-betweeners—is somehow connected to British Intelligence.” Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. In 1876, professor Edward Cope takes a group of students to the unforgiving American West to hunt for dinosaur fossils, and they make a tremendous discovery.

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Spook Street is one of the darker novels and what little comic relief there is, is provided by Roddy Ho getting a girlfriend, a plot thread which is pulled in the follow up novel, London Rules. It also lays the ground for the events of Joe Country, and at the same time introduces a series villain, ex-CIA operative Frank Harkness. This novel is a series highlight for me, and went on to win the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award as well as being shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, The British Book Awards and The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Mick Herron Jackson Lamb Thriller Series 6 Books Collection Mick Herron Jackson Lamb Thriller Series 6 Books Collection

Real Tigers begins with fan favorite “slow horse,” Catherine Standish, literally bumping into past colleague Sean Donovan outside the Slough House building. Given their complicated history, which the reader slowly becomes aware of, this coincidence is hardly a pleasant surprise. After parting ways, Catherine is brazenly abducted off the London streets, vanishing into the ether. Catherine Standish is Lamb’s assistant, and a recovering alcoholic. She used to assist Charles Partner, who was First Desk at Regents Park until his suicide – something it’s rumoured Lamb might have had a hand in arranging. Partner had been selling secrets to the Russians. Masterful . . .Deliciously tongue-in-cheek and with a strikingly serpentine construction, it is a thriller that moves Herron close to the class of Graham Greene.”

The Slough House series is] among the finest British spy fiction of the past 20 years . . . Real Tigers sees them dragged center stage when the kidnap of Lamb’s assistant sets into motion a narrative of breathtaking ingenuity. Brilliant.” Funny, clever . . . Genuinely thrilling. The novel is equally noteworthy for its often lyrical prose.” At heart, there is solid seriousness here as the new Home Secretary unleashes a tiger team (in which your own side tests you to the limit) to expose the weaknesses of British intelligence . . .Readers love this series for its breezy treatment of espionage in which you get to cheer for the underdogs while also showing respect for their opponents. Characters are drawn with the sharpest possible pen.”