great story within the slow horses series. Loved the throw back to the Cold War. Felt almost like a historical fiction in some ways. loved the dark humour peppered throughout, keeps the story interesting and not too full on.

Very fast read, with a number of surprises. This was my first of his books, and I'll be back to read more.

Dead Lions is the second book in the Slough House series. Slough (pronounced slow) House is the MI5 dumping ground for screw-ups. Jackson lamb and his band of misfits are joined by two new members to the team.
The teams main job is to complete paper work and endless amounts of data entry but they live in hope of one day returning to head office.
Mick Herron gives the reader a look at some of the characters personal lives and it seems their work misfortune flows over to their everyday life. They all really do come across as a bunch of losers but you can’t help but have some affection for them.
When Min and Louisa are seconded to H.O. to babysit a Russian security team they think this may be their big break.
A long dead myth emerges once again after many years and an old street hand is found dead. Lamb believing he could have been murdered starts an investigation of his own.
The story is told in dual plot lines that cleverly connect for an adrenaline filled, explosive ending.
Herron includes his own brand of humour with sarcasm, hypotheticals and a wry wit that had me laughing out loud throughout the story. The atmosphere is perfectly set for a spy novel on the dimly lit, fog filled streets of London.
Lamb is rude and abrupt to his fellow workers but when it comes to the crunch he is on their side. He is arrogant and oafish but he has an inexplicable appeal.
Herron doesn’t baulk at killing off his characters – Slough House is staffed by crew-ups and there is no shortage of replacements.

This is a must read series! Slough House has been made into a series, titled Slow Horses after the first book, on Apple TV starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb.

Clever and cunning is the best way to describe this series. The crimes keep you guessing, the characters are full of wit and really hold your attention. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

All the gang are back again in another thoroughly enjoyable story, about the Slow Horses of Slough House. Jackson Lamb is getting ever more revolting in his personal habits, Rodney Ho more involved in creating an imaginary existence for himself and River Cartwright is doing what he does best.

This was a great story, and I'm loving the series of books.

Suffice to say that I went out and bought the all the available published books that is how much I loved these books in the "Slough House" series.

A breath of fresh air in the noirish espionage genre - for there are certainly elements of noir in Jackson Lamb, our anti-hero and Cold War leftover.

A meandering story the leaves you wondering where you will end up - and not always at the conclusion you think you are heading towards.

I would love to see this as a TV series!

As Dickie Bow followed the hood, keeping him/it in sight, it felt good to be back on the job – even though no one else knew about it. The problem with the trains meant the frustrated commuters queued to catch the replacement buses, so Dickie kept the hood in view and stepped onto the same bus, sitting two seats behind him.

But when Dickie was found dead at the end of the route, Jackson Lamb – head of Slough House, where the disgraced MI5 spies were put out to pasture – was positive Dickie had been murdered. And he knew he needed to find the answers. His misfit agents in their search for the truth found a dark web of Cold War secrets. Danger was afoot; people would die; but Lamb wanted to know - did Dickie die of natural causes, or was it murder?

Humerous and dark, Dead Lions by Mick Herron is the 2nd in the Slough House series and though there are many characters, the odious Jackson Lamb stands out. Always one step ahead of the rest, with his often rude and snarky comments he runs Slough House with aplomb. Twists and turns are littered with dry humour and sarcasm – the plot is complex and entertaining. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy to read and review.

This is the second book in the series and I think I’m hooked. Not James Bond leaping from torrid exploit to torrid exploit just more normal people , written off by their mainstream bosses.
A cold war double agent turns up dead on a bus when it reaches Oxford (weirdly topical) and so the race to unravel the puzzle – who dunnit and why – is started.
I am irritated by the unnecessary descriptions of a cat, mouse or misty spirit which introduces readers to Slough Hose at the beginning of each novel and finishes the novels. It adds nothing to the story.
That said I’ve already started book 3

This starts out reasonably well, with an old-time Le Carré atmosphere updated to modern London. However, halfway through, the wobbly plot gets stupid-silly, and the characters turn into cartoons.

There was more humour starting in the second 1/4 and continuing some of the way through. Herron's wit and humour are pretty good. This is often good fun, without detracting from the seriousness of the mystery and spycraft!

Nice moment of history for River:
River Cartwright was a spook because that’s what his grandfather was. Not had been: was. Some professions you never gave up, long after they were over. David Cartwright was a Service legend, but the way he told it, the same held true for the lowliest bagman: you could change sides, sell your secrets, offer your memoirs to the highest bidder, but once a spook you were always a spook, and everything else was just cover.

Cute:
Women were born spooks, and could smell betrayal before it happened.

River's grandad, the O.B., considering River's suspicions about Lamb...
That woodlouse: it had scuttered about in evident fear, and at the last second had thrown itself into the flames below, as if death were preferable to the moments spent waiting for it.

Alexander Popov hadn’t existed. He wondered if that were still the case. He continued to stare into the dying fire for some while. But in the way of things that were dying, it didn’t reveal anything he didn’t already know.

At about halfway through, both Taverner and Webb agree to the silliest and most outrageous cartoon operation to recruit a Russian bigwig. No way any sane person would agree to any of this, no matter how avaricious and power-hungry.

From there on, the plot gets sillier and sillier, more and more chaotic and choppy. By the last 1/4 of the book, the point of view changes with almost every paragraph. What a nasty, stupid mess.

Ugh.

Notes:

5.0% ".... I'm reminded of the London
"Poison-tip umbrella assassination of Georgi Markov" here."

25.0% "Much more assured than "Slow Horses", with good pacing, interesting expansion of the main characters, and a good central mystery. Great stuff!"

57.0% ".. I'm insulted by the stupidity of "the Needle" sub-plot, and that even with insane lust for power, anyone over the age of 8 would fall for this crap. Bad deal,Herron. Ugh"

58.0% "... But it was like being in New York, where someone could ask you the time in a way that suggested you’d just punched their mother."

66.0% "... far less happy with this now. Plot keeps getting sillier."

76.0% "... again, my least favourite lazy writing tactic: To have a character see or hear something that the author withholds. Grrrrrrr"

78.0% "... Herron blatantly steals the "Molly" character from Le Carré. Too blatant to be homage. Ugh"

81.0% "... all shoe and no footprint...
Similar to Texas "all hat and no cattle"..."

89.0% "... incredibly choppy, confused climax. A cartoon spy story of laughable stupidity. Ugh."

I have just added Mick Herron to my go-to list for spy-fi, alongside Deighton and Le’Carre.  I was incredibly impressed by Dead Lions - so much so that I immediately plan to read the next book in the series.  First the intro to Slough house and its residents was supremely clever, giving insight to the nature of the characters present in a nontraditional way.  The closure was equally impressive .


Jackson Lamb is much like George Smiley - except for being far more slovenly and smelly.(Timothy Spall with worse teeth and gas)  He is good at his job and knows where all the bodies are buried. He isn’t an action figure, but he is smart and knows how to get information.  Everyone who can’t be fired from the service is sent to Slough House. All of the misfits, including those who have made big mistakes are given to Jackson Lamb.  For the most part their work is tedious and boring but sometimes …


When Dickie Bow, a skilled streetwalker (someone good at shadowing or following) is murdered in a way that is suspect, Lamb is curious enough to leave his office and start looking into it.  Why does it appear that an old-school soviet op is going on?


The slow horses have their work cut out for them and it is quite fun to watch them run.  Dead Lions is an excellent spy story with a memorable cast of misfit characters who definitely have the right stuff.


5 / 5


I received a copy of Dead Lions from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


— Crittermom

I loved this book. The series just goes from strength to strength. The characters are strong, the scenarios are genuinely gripping, and I love the balance between the characters lives and the investigations they're involved with. Slow Horses was a fantastic start to this series, and I wasn't sure if Herron could better it, but he has. I finished this book last night and am already 20% of the way through the next one.

This is book two of the Jackson Lamb series based on said Lamb and the M15 failures he looks after in Slough House. This book although published originally a couple of years ago, is very timely as it involves Russian sleeper agents coming into action to cause a terrorist threat. River Cartwright is dispatched to seemingly quiet Cotswold village to root out Russian agents, whilst Jackson Lamb is on the trail of a killing of an old colleague...

One of the great talents of Mick Herron is to leave one part of the story on a cliff-hanger, then when you rejoin that part of the story again you are often surprised at the outcome. The main characters are believable and in Jackson Lamb you have what appears to be an overweight tramp, whereas in fact he has a cunning mind and can spring into action, only on his terms though.

I highly recommend these books and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

This was an excellent sequel to the brilliant Slow Horses. Jackson Lamb and his team of misfits, exiled by MI5 to the backwaters of Slough House, are back at their desks churning through paperwork when an ex-cold war spy is killed on a bus. Jackson Lamb believes his death may be linked to an old Russian spy network that may or may not have existed and the 'slow horses' suddenly find themselves involved in an operation. River Cartwright is dispatched to a sleepy village to hunt for Russian spies while two of Lamb's team are seconded by Spider Webb to help him recruit a wealthy Russian businessman.

This is a complex, multilayered plot that unfolds carefully to pull all the threads together into a thrilling conclusion with enough twists and underhand deals to keep you guessing. The characters are the real strength of this series, particularly the shambolic smoking, drinking, farting, bacon-sandwich eating Lamb who looks incompetent but whose brain is as sharp as ever and remembers everything. River and the rest of the team are keen to work together to redeem themselves with MI5 in the hope that they'll be invited back to head office. Throughout a dry wit and dark humour keeps the characters and their exploits grounded and makes this a very entertaining read.

Good tho, to a certain extent, I enjoyed Slow Horses better because that one was undoubtedly a win for our agents. This one... well, it's complicated. See, an old spy is found dead on a bus he didn't have a ticket for, and no one seems to care except Jackson Lamb, who worked with the dead man back in Berlin before the wall came down. As Lamb sorts out Dickie Bow's movements, he slowly entangles the rest of his Department of Deadbeats in the investigation.

Except for Louisa Guy and Min Harper, that is, who've been seconded to Regent's Park by the ambitious James Webb, the same MI5 bureaucrat who played such a pivotal role in the current staffing of Slough House (the not-actual-but-close-enough name of the department Lamb runs.) Webb wants to make a sweetheart deal with a potential Russian asset, but with accounting at HQ on a tear due to recent financial scandal, has decided to fly under the radar by picking up Slough House assets and dangling before them the carrot all Slow Horses want: re-entry to Regent's Park proper if all goes well. Of course, all doesn't, and it's a hell of a thrill ride through London and the Cotswolds as Webb inevitably screws up while Lamb locks horns with an old specter: a Cold War spy who was supposed to never have existed.

As always, I loved the interactions between Lamb and Catherine Standish, his right-hand woman. I also enjoyed the addition of the two newest Slow Horses, especially Marcus, whom I'm hoping eventually partners professionally with Louisa. Honestly, I'm still reeling a bit over what happened with her and Min. I'm feeling a bit protective of my team of misfits over here! But I needs must read something lighter before plunging back into this fascinating, if occasionally depressing world, so I'm off to read a cozy before picking up the next book in this series.

This is the second in the Slow Horses series, about slobby old dishevelled master spook Jackson Lamb, and his collection of failed spies who've been banished from real MI5 work for various reasons, but can't be fired, and instead are kept busy doing mindless drudge work, in the hope that they will quit.

Set months after the events of Slow Horses, life at Slough House goes on as normal, but Lamb is on the tail of a former Russian agent who he suspects of murdering another retired old has-been spy, which leads River Cartwright to a small Cotswolds village where he goes undercover posing as a writer.
Meanwhile Min and Louisa are recruited by River's nemesis Spider Webb, to work with a Russian oligarch who is visiting London for a secret meeting, and two grumpy new Slow Horses, Marcus and Shirley, are trying to find their way back out of Slough House.

This was slower to get going than the first book, with all the action and excitement happening in the final third. You could just about read it as a standalone, but would enjoy it more knowing the established relationships between the characters. As previously, all the carefully planted clues come together seamlessly but without in any way predicting the outcome. I love Herron's clever metaphors and similes, and wry humour. You need to pay attention here and I found myself reading some sentences several times before getting the jokes. I look forward to the rest of the series, (3 more) which are waiting for me courtesy of NetGalley.

4.5★
“‘You want to know what Lamb wanted, right?’
‘Just a clue.’
‘He’d kill me. And he could do it, too. He’s killed people before.’
‘That’s what he wants you to think,’ River said.
‘You’re saying he hasn’t?’
‘I’m saying he’s not allowed to kill staff. Health and safety.”

And yes, he could. Lamb could. He runs the slow horses, the has-been or the might-have-been spies who’ve been relegated to spook limbo in Slough House where the heavies in MI5 and Regent Park hope they’ll get bored and resign.

Lamb is a deliciously disgusting character, as is his office, where

“The air is heavy with a dog’s olfactory daydream: takeaway food, illicit cigarettes, day-old farts and stale beer. . .”

He’s nearly always grubby and greasy and stuffing himself with bacon sandwiches after which he farts noisily and lights yet another cigarette. I kept expecting him to cause a small explosion or be hoist by his own petard, literally. (My dad once told me that the origin of the word ‘petard’ was ‘break wind’ in old French, so I looked it up, and it’s true. Goes back to Latin, but I digress. Still, to be hoist by one’s own petard paints an amusing picture, eh?)

But he’s also learned a lot and forgotten nothing, which make it impossible to get the better of him. Doesn’t know the meaning of politically correct. Dreadful boss. Catherine Standish and River Cartwright approach him in his office, seeking information.

‘We don’t like being out of the loop.’

‘You’re always out of the loop.The loop’s miles away. Nearest you’ll get to being in the loop is when they make a documentary about it and show it on the History Channel. I thought you were aware of that.’”
. . .
“Lamb plucked a stained mug from the litter on his desk, and threw it at Catherine. River caught it before it reached her head. Lamb said, ‘Well, I’m glad we’ve had this chat. Now f*** off. Cartwright, give that to Standish. Standish, fill it with tea.’”

Catherine Standish had been a fairly important person as assistant to and eventually carer for a very influential, but later disgraced, senior official, now deceased, hence her demotion. River Cartwright bombed out on a training exercise when he was undermined by James “Spider” Webb, who sabotaged it. The details are in the last book, but this is not a spoiler, if you haven’t read it yet.)

River is still employed, not by the grace of God but by the grace of Grandad Cartwright, a renowned and retired old spook whom nobody still dares cross. He knows where too many skeletons are buried, figuratively and literally.

“. . . once a spook you were always a spook, and everything else was just cover. So the friendly old man trowelling his flowerbeds with a silly hat on remained the strategist who’d helped plot the Service’s course through the Cold War, and River had grown up learning the details.

This case harks back to the Cold War, and River chats to Granddad about it, but finds him pretty circumspect. He will drop the occasional crumb of information about dealings with the Russians, but as for possible ongoing threats, or reasons for them, he speaks only about an imaginary villain, a ‘scarecrow’ whom the Russians invented to get the British to follow.

But when former spy Dickie Bow is found dead on a bus, a few people take notice. He may have been a washed-up operative, but he had been one of the family, so to speak, in the old days, and Lamb decides to investigate. Not because he cares, mind you.

“There was no brotherhood code. If Dickie Bow had succumbed to a mattress fire, Lamb would have got through the five stages without batting an eye: denial, anger, bargaining, indifference, breakfast.”

(Bacon sandwiches, no doubt.) His investigation does unearth a phone.

“It was an ancient thing, a Nokia, black-and-grey, with about as many functions as a bottle opener. You could no more take a photo with it than send an e-mail with a stapler.”

It seems, the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

Oh. To do a trade deal? Sounds kind of boring, and is . . . until suddenly, it isn’t. Spider Webb is set to make a name for himself, River gets sent to the countryside, tracking down a lead, and Min Harper and Lousa Guy are assigned to look after the Russians.

Many characters return, and new characters are added. This may be funny and entertaining, but the job is deadly and people do die. Sadly. I was starting to enjoy someone who won’t be back, but no hints.

The action does get pretty heavy (well, I said somebody didn’t make it), so it’s not all fun and games.

All in all, another absolute delight. I didn’t guess the plot or the connections, and I certainly didn’t guess the ultimate ending. There are hints along the way, so there’s no sudden surprise revelation, just a peeling back of information which I find very satisfying.

I should add that it’s well-written and the descriptions of place and atmosphere are as good as those of the characters. A church spire in a country town reached “a skyline it had kissed for hundreds of years”.

Incidentally, I think this would read fine as a stand-alone. Enough background is given here and there to appreciate the characters’ histories.

Thanks again to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. On it #3 in the series!

I've seen these books labelled the Slough House series and / or the Jackson Lamb series. Either way it's centred around a group of ex-spooks, all of whom have (for various reasons) been shafted by MI5 and (though still officially employed by the government) now work from Slough House (and given the moniker 'Slow Horses').

The team we met (in the first outing) are all back, along with a couple of newcomers. Again Herron alternates points of view and we jump between all of the team's heads. It works and ensures we're able to engage with all of the characters and understand where each of them are coming from.

Months have passed since the first book and the team are back to the drudgery of background checks and the like until Lamb looks into the death of a former spy and finds himself (and his team) following a heap of clues which appear to be carefully laid.... awaiting their discovery.

At the same time, a couple of team members are given a job that could give them the opportunity to get back into the service. I often hate the notion of two disparate cases - even if they eventually converge - but it works here, because they seem so different.

The characters are great. Lamb is amazingly endearing given his revolting habits (he's an unkempt obese man prone to farting... though happily lulling others into the misperception his mind is as slovenly as his appearance). And - heads up - Herron takes no prisoners in killing off one of the team members in this outing.

I also love the way he introduces each 'section' of the book (and ends the book) by pulling we readers into some first person (plural) narrative where 'we' are a cat or mouse wandering onto the scene. It's a brilliant way of describing what we're seeing though also offering some commentary on those present / the place and so forth.

I reviewed the first of this series on my website (debbish.com) and am now bingeing on the next three as the latest (London Rules) has arrived and I'm keen to read them in order.

3.5 - 4 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and John Murray for the eARC.
This 2nd in the Slough House series was even better than the first. The wry and at times humorous writing really appeals to me. The characters are all appealing in their own ways, but my favorites are Jackson Lamb and Catherine Standish.
Dickie Bow, a relic from The Service, kicked to the curb after the Berlin Wall came down, follows a man he knows instinctively to be a Russian hood...once a spy, always a spy. He ends up dead in a bus and Jackson Lamb, remembering Dickie from the Spooks' Zoo (Berlin), decides to investigate his death, sure it was murder.
Slough House has 2 new members, another pair of Slow Horses who were considered to be failures and kicked down to Slough House to join the other 'losers'.
But yet again, they prove to be a team not to be underestimated. When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
A Russian oligarch, his two goons, a sleepy English village and a huge public demonstration in London end up causing the death of one of the Slow Horses and the game is on. Despite the backstabbing, dislike between the members of the team and their overall ennui, they pull together to come out on top once again.
It's a series that promises to get better after each book. Each character is appealing, whether they're likeable or not. Jackson Lamb has some appalling habits, but it only makes me want to read more of him, he's so grossly fascinating; funny and dangerous, definitely someone to be wary of if you're on the wrong side.
No. 3 is next on my list, can't wait!

This is proving to be a very addictive series.

As in the first book we watch our group of MI5 misfits bumble and stumble their way through situations they do not understand and which are usually not what they seem. In this book several of the Slow Horses are involved in really serious situations and one dies. This author is not afraid of leaving corpses behind, including those of the good guys!

What is it that is so appealing about these books? I think it is mostly down to the characters who are all appealing in their own varied ways. The dialogue is smart, a bit dark, and frequently funny. And Jackson Lamb is perfectly cast. Overweight, drinks and smokes too much, doesn't care what he says to anybody, frequently extremely rude and yet he is always at least one step ahead of anybody else in what is going on.

I would recommend this series to anyone who likes their spy stories with a touch of irreverence and humour.