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Real Tigers (Slough House) Paperback – January 3, 2017

by Mick Herron (Author)

4.6 19,303 ratings

Book 3 of 8: Slough House

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THE BOOK BEHIND the 3rd season of SLOW HORSES, the APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES starring Gary Oldman in his Emmy-nominated role as Jackson Lamb

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.

London: Slough House is the MI5 branch where disgraced operatives are reassigned after they’ve messed up too badly to be trusted with real intelligence work. The “Slow Horses,” as the failed spies of Slough House are called, are doomed to spend the rest of their careers pushing paper, but they all want back in on the action.

When one of their own is kidnapped and held for ransom, the agents of Slough House must defeat the odds, overturning all expectations of their competence, to breach the top-notch security of MI5’s intelligence headquarters, Regent’s Park, and steal valuable intel in exchange for their comrade’s safety. The kidnapping is only the tip of the iceberg, however—the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but the highest authorities in the Secret Service. After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the Slow Horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House, but of MI5 itself.

Book 3 of 8

Slough House
Print length

360 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Soho Crime
Publication date

January 3, 2017
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.95 x 8.24 inches
ISBN-10

1616957980
ISBN-13

978-1616957988
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Popular Highlights in this book

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Because belief was not about actually believing; belief was simply somewhere to shelve hope.
Highlighted by 449 Kindle readers
Victory, she had once heard someone say, was about ensuring your opponent never again put head to pillow without thinking with hatred on your face.
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You either cleaned up other people’s messes or you didn’t—and that was the class system for you, right there.
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From the Publisher

slow horses, slow horses show, mick herron, slough house, jackson lamb

Mick Herron, Slough House, Jackson Lamb, spy thriller


	Slow Horses: Slough House book 1	Dead Lions: Slough House book 2	Spook Street: Slough House book 4	London Rules: Slough House book 5	Joe Country: Slough House book 6

Customer Reviews	23,894	15,534	17,428	15,783	13,673
Price	$11.21	$12.19	$18.95	$17.91	$13.29
	This team of MI5 agents at London’s Slough House is united by a common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.	The disgraced MI5 agents of Slough House uncover a deadly Cold War-era legacy of sleeper cells and mythic super spies.	What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a home for spies who forget their secrets are a secret, or does someone take care of them for good?	With the country beset by series of random attacks and one of their own marked for assassination, the Slow Horses rediscover their greatest strength—that of making a bad situation much worse.	Old habits, lost loves, and new blood have the Slow Horses struggling to stay focused, but an old enemy, now out of hiding, may bring them close for a common purpose—vengeance.


	Slough House: Slough House book 7	Bad Actors: Slough House book 8	Standing by the Wall: The collected Slough House novellas	The Secret Hours

Customer Reviews	15,345	13,849	4,303	12,296
Price	$14.95	$20.37	$12.99	$15.59
	With a new populist movement taking hold and the corporate elite ensuring that everything's for sale, the Slow Horses are in a fight for their lives as they navigate dizzying layers of lies, power, and death.	A key member of a think-tank with a remit to curb the independence of the intelligence service has gone missing, and the trail of evidence leads back to MI5's Regent’s Park.	At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, including the never-before-published Christmas interlude 'Standing by the Wall.'	Discover a gripping standalone spy thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Real Tigers

A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
A Telegraph Best Crime Novel of the Year
Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel
Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Best Thriller

“[Herron's] cleverly plotted page-turners are driven by dialogue that bristles with one-liners. Much of the humor comes from Herron’s sharp eye for the way bureaucracies, whether corporate or clandestine, function and malfunction. The world of Slough House is closer to The Office than to 007.”
—The Associated Press

"A pulsating spy thriller about a kidnapped fallen spy whose colleagues uncover a plot threatening the future of the security service."
—The Daily Express (UK)

"[Herron is the] le Carré of the future . . . The characters are brilliant."
—Patrick Neale on BBC's The Oxford Book Club

"Heroic struggles, less-heroic failures and a shoot-out-cum-heist . . . with no let-up in the page turning throughout."
—Esquire

"If you read one spy novel this year, read Real Tigers. Better still, read the whole series."
—The Spectator

"[Reads] like an episode of Spooks written by Ricky Gervais . . . With his poet's eye for detail, his comic timing and relish for violence, Herron fills a gap that has been yawning ever since Len Deighton retired."
—The Daily Telegraph, ★★★★★

"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 Daily Mail

"All the action you might want from an espionage thriller is to be found in Real Tigers, with betrayal, double-dealing and a fantastically violent climax in an underground facility, but the true pleasures of Mick Herron’s Gold Dagger-winning Slough House series lie elsewhere: in the sharp wit and dry irony and elegant grace of the prose, the razor-sharp characterisation . . . Think Le Carré with fewer posh people and laugh-out-loud funny. Mick Herron is the real deal."
—Irish Times

"[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."
—London Metro

"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."
—The Sunday Times (London)

"Brilliantly twisty . . . Fun and thrilling in equal measure, Real Tigers is an absolute joy."
—The Mail on Sunday

"Deviously clever."
—StopYou'reKillingMe.com

"Herron's is the next big name in crime fiction."
—The Literary Review

"The labyrinthine plot takes off like a NASA rocket . . . What makes this work is top-notch writing and characterization. Thanks to crisp, clever dialogue, the reader is quickly drawn into the odd camaraderie of the Slough House team and their specific quirks."
—Mystery Scene

"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."
—Los Angeles Review of Books

"It is impossible not to be impressed by Herron’s use of language . . . A thoroughly entertaining tale."
—CrimeReview.com

"Misdirection abounds as the Slow Horses work to save their fellow agent and thwart a devious government conspiracy . . . I certainly enjoyed all the little surprising plot twists along the way to the wickedly delightful conclusion."
—FreshFiction

"A wondrous thing . . . Slough House is a marvelous invention."
—Reviewing The Evidence

"To say this is a great read is an understatement. This book is not your usual thriller ‘good vs. bad.’ It’s much more like always looking for someone to blame as the action and humor continue to skyrocket. "
—Suspense Magazine

"The disgraced spies at MI5’s Slough House must try to save one of their own in CWA Gold Dagger Award–winner Herron’s outstanding third thriller . . . Herron expertly juggles multiple plot lines and fully formed characters, injecting everything with a jolt of black humor."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"[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."
—Kirkus Reviews

"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."
—Library Journal

Praise for Dead Lions

Winner of the 2013 CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year
A BBC Front Row Best Crime Novel of the Year
A Times Crime and Thriller Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Top 50 Crime and Thriller Book of the Past 5 Years

"Delightful . . . with a dry humor reminiscent of Greene and Waugh."
—The Sunday Times

"A great romp."
—Jeff Park, BBC Front Row

"Clever and funny."
—The Times

“Unbeatable entertainment for thriller fans.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review

"Funny, clever . . . Genuinely thrilling. The novel is equally noteworthy for its often lyrical prose."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Praise for Mick Herron

“The sharpest spy fiction since John le Carré.”
—NPR's Fresh Air

“Compulsively readable, tightly plotted.”
—Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of six books in the Slough House series (Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, and the novella The List) and four Oxford mysteries (Down Cemetery Road, The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers), as well as the standalone novels Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and This Is What Happened. His work has won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Like most forms of corruption, it began with men in suits.
    A weekday morning on the edge of the City; damp, dark, foggy, not yet five. In the nearby towers, some of which reached upwards of twenty storeys, random windows were lit, making haphazard patterns in the glass-and-steel grids, and some of those lights meant early-bird bankers were at their desks, getting a jump on the markets, but most were a sign that the other City workers were on the job, the ones who wore overalls, and whose pre-dawn tasks involved vacuuming, polishing, emptying bins. Paul Lowell’s sympathies were with the latter. You either cleaned up other people’s messes or you didn’t—and that was the class system for you, right there.
     He glanced at the road below. Eighteen metres was a fair distance, viewed vertically. Dropping to his haunches he felt the relevant muscles crunch, and cheap fabric strain unpleasantly across his thighs. His suit was too small. Lowell had figured it was stretchy enough that this wouldn’t matter, but in the event he felt constricted by it, and graced with none of the power he might have imagined it bestowing.
    Or maybe he was just getting fat.
    Lowell was on a platform, which probably wasn’t the correct architectural term for it, above an arch through which ran London Wall, the dual-lane thoroughfare reaching from St. Martin’s-le-Grand to Moorgate. Above him was another tower block, part of a pair set at an angle to each other, and housing one of the world’s leading investment banks as well as one of its most famous pizza chains. A hundred yards away, on a grassy knoll by the side of the road to which it had lent its name, ran a chunk of the Roman wall which had once encircled the City, still standing centuries after its builders had given up their ghosts. A symbol, it occurred to Lowell now. Some things endured, survived changing attitudes, and it was worth fighting to preserve what remained of them. Why he was here, in a nutshell.
    Shrugging his rucksack free he placed it between his knees, drew a zip and unpacked its contents. In an hour or so traffic would build, heading into the City or points east, a quantity of it passing through the arch on which he perched, and all those cars, taxis, buses and bikes would have no choice but to bear witness. And in their wake would come the inevitable: the news crews, the cameras, carrying his message to the nation.
    . . . All he wanted was his voice to be heard. After years of being denied his rights he was ready to fight, and like others before him, had chosen a particular mode in which to do so. This was how traditions were born. He didn’t for a moment think anything he achieved today would make a major difference, but others in his position would see, and learn, and maybe act. Someday, that difference would be made.
    There was movement, and he turned to see a figure hoisting itself onto the far end of the platform, having scaled the building from the street below as Lowell had ten minutes earlier. It took a second for recognition to sink in, but as soon as it did he felt a thump of excitement, as if he were twelve again. Because this was what every twelve-year-old wanted to see, he thought, as he watched the newcomer approach. This was the stuff young boys’ dreams were made of.
    Tall, broad and purposeful, Batman strode towards him through damp ribbons of fog.
    “Hey,” Lowell called. “Nice one.”
    He looked down at his own costume. Spider-Man was hardly age-appropriate, but it wasn’t like anyone would be offering style points: making the evening news was the aim, and superhero suits ticked the right media boxes. It had worked before and would work again. So he was the Amazing Spider-Man, and the comrade he was meeting for the first time now, with whom all arrangements had been made anonymously through a message board, was Batman, and the pair would be a dynamic duo for one morning only, and blaze through newscasts for the rest of the week. One hand on the roll of canvas he’d unpacked, Lowell levered himself to his feet and extended the other, because this too was part of an ancient narrative: men meeting and greeting, and bonding in a common cause.
    Ignoring Spider-Man’s outstretched hand, Batman punched him in the face.
    Lowell fell backwards as the world span out of control: lit-up office windows spiralled like stars, and all the air left his body as it hit damp brickwork. But already his mind had slipped into workgear, and he rolled sideways, away from the edge, as Batman’s foot stamped down hard, just missing his elbow. He needed to be upright, because nobody ever won a fight from a prone position, and he concentrated on this for the next two seconds instead of wondering why Batman was kicking the shit out of him, and his focus almost paid off because he’d made it to his knees before he was punched in the head again. Blood soaked through Lowell’s Spider-Man mask. He tried to speak. A formless gargle was all he could manage.
    And then he was being dragged towards the edge of the platform.
    He shrieked, because it was clear what would happen next. Batman was hauling him by the shoulders, and he couldn’t break free—the man’s hands felt moulded from steel. He kicked out and hit the canvas lump, which rolled towards the edge, unravelling as it went. He swung an arm for Batman’s crotch, but hit muscle-hard thigh instead. And then he was hanging in space, the only thing keeping him aloft the caped crusader’s grip.
    For a moment they were locked in near-embrace, Batman rigidly upright, Spider-Man dangling, as if posing for a cover illustration.
    “For pity’s sake,” Spider-Man whispered.
    Batman dropped him.
    The canvas roll had hit the road before Paul Lowell did but wasn’t a roll by then, having unwound itself along the tarmac to become a strip of carpet instead of the banner he’d intended it to be. In foot-high letters, its hand-painted battle-cry, A FAIR DEAL FOR FEATHERS, blurred as the wet ground soaked into the fabric, along with a certain quantity of Lowell’s blood, but remained a gratifyingly newsworthy image, and would feature in many a broadcast before the day was out.
    Paul Lowell didn’t see any of them, thought.
    As for Batman, he was long gone.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Soho Crime; Reprint edition (January 3, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616957980
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616957988
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.95 x 8.24 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #72 in Traditional Detective Mysteries (Books)
- #89 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)
- #136 in Cozy Animal Mysteries

Customer Reviews:
4.6 19,303 ratings

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Mick Herron

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Mick Herron’s six Slough House novels have been shortlisted for eight CWA Daggers, winning twice, and shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year three times. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while the most recent, Joe Country, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller.

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Customer reviews

19,303 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the plot complex, original, and ingenious. They describe the book as an engaging, satisfying read with witty, sarcastic, and acerbic wit. Readers also find the characters unforgettable, believable, and finely drawn. They praise the writing style as great and laconic. Opinions are mixed on the series quality, with some finding it great and wonderful, while others say it's not up to standard.

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Plot complexity Enjoyment Humor Character development Writing style Series quality

57 customers mention "Plot complexity"53 positive4 negative

Customers find the plot complex. They mention it's original, ingenious, and thrilling. Readers also mention the narrative and dialogue are perfectly balanced. They say the book is interesting to the end and well-envisioned.

"Good plotting, good action, clever writing. All that you have come to expect from a Mick Herron Slow Horses book." Read more

"...’s “slow horse” spy series, and like the others I’ve read, it is a thrilling, funny adventure...." Read more

"...series (I haven't read any of his other books, yet) he displays mastery of plot and suspense...." Read more

"The book is funny and the story is fast moving. I love the dialog and the characters, and Mick Herron’s writing." Read more

55 customers mention "Enjoyment"55 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging, satisfying, and fabulous. They also say the characters are interesting, relatable, and creative. Readers mention the book is exciting and hilarious.

"...Another thoroughly satisfying Mick Herron. Who could ask for more?" Read more

"...The plot is complex, fast-paced, and satisfying...." Read more

"...have encountered no-one with a style quite like his, and he is very, very good...." Read more

"...to four more characters than necessary thrown in, but another good book in the lineup." Read more

34 customers mention "Humor"31 positive3 negative

Customers find the humor in the book sarcastic, acerbic, and hilarious. They also appreciate the British snarky dialog and view into the dysfunctional police department. Readers also mention the book is a thrilling, funny adventure.

"...” spy series, and like the others I’ve read, it is a thrilling, funny adventure...." Read more

"The book is funny and the story is fast moving. I love the dialog and the characters, and Mick Herron’s writing." Read more

"Another satisfying, hilarious work. Herron is a master. He’s original and creative. I’m steadily working through all of his books." Read more

"There is nothing to dislike about this at times spooky, exciting and hilarious "spy" series...." Read more

30 customers mention "Character development"30 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters unforgettable, believable, and finely drawn. They also appreciate the descriptive writing and flashes of illumination of character.

"...dripped like drops of acid into the text, are effective in giving a sense of character to both person and place...." Read more

"The book is funny and the story is fast moving. I love the dialog and the characters, and Mick Herron’s writing." Read more

"...saw no action throughout most of the book, as it gave valuable insights into their personality. Also, grudging respect to Taverner...." Read more

"...One thing I like the most is how the characters transform from book to book, yet stay true to form." Read more

29 customers mention "Writing style"25 positive4 negative

Customers find the writing style great and laconic.

"Good plotting, good action, clever writing. All that you have come to expect from a Mick Herron Slow Horses book." Read more

"...The prose is laconic, but little asides and descriptions, dripped like drops of acid into the text, are effective in giving a sense of character to..." Read more

"...The writing and storytelling have improved. The dialog and descriptive prose are more natural and entertaining. And I am a fan of River and Lamb!..." Read more

"Mick Herron is a superlative writer. His characterizations are deft and compact; his plots are original and ingenious...." Read more

14 customers mention "Series quality"8 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the series quality. Some mention it's great, the ensemble is outstanding, and the conceit of the series still works well. Others say the book is not up to standard, the language is offensive, and it'd make a wonderful TV series.

"As usual the ensemble is outstanding. The repartee among the Slow Horses makes you forget the plot revolves around office politics and little else...." Read more

"...His London is repulsive and rotting at its core. Perhaps a happy pill would lighten his palette just a bit." Read more

"...This series keeps getting better. Top notch entertainment from a diminishing cast of the disgraced spies, the slow horses, exiled to slough house." Read more

"It's interesting, but not as good as his others. He digresses too much from the story and spends too much time making his characters cute." Read more

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S. M. Cahill

Such great writing — is he the best living?

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2024

Verified Purchase

Plot twists galore, of course. Fart smells abound, ashes on every floor (and the car seat), derring do by every one of the slow horses. Another thoroughly satisfying Mick Herron. Who could ask for more?

Helpful

William York

Another good Slow Horses stories, both more internal to the Service and with more action at the same time

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2024

Verified Purchase

Good plotting, good action, clever writing. All that you have come to expect from a Mick Herron Slow Horses book.

Helpful

Katherine Y

Agent goes rogue to save another agent in thrilling and funny spy novel

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is the third book in Mick Herron’s “slow horse” spy series, and like the others I’ve read, it is a thrilling, funny adventure. Exposing the follies of Regent’s Park (MI5) administrators and government ministers who pull strings is the slow horse stock-in-trade. This time the group of Regent’s Park cast-offs, housed in the decrepit Slough House headquarters, find themselves defending one of their own.
Catherine Standish, the “Moneypenny” of the group, has been kidnapped by a private security company that employs ex-spies. The reason she is being held is a mystery. The kidnappers contact River Cartwright, a slow horse agent. He is told the kidnappers will release Standish only if he agrees to obtain secret (grey file) information held at a heavily guarded secure facility away from Regent’s Park. Added to his stress, River is operating rogue, without the knowledge of his reprobate leader, Jackson Lamb. River also has a time limit before the kidnappers do something to Standish.
The plot is complex, fast-paced, and satisfying. Although readers who are picking up this book without reading the previous ones can follow the story, it’s much more enjoyable to have read about the characters before and know their backstories. Herron is a terrific writer who keeps his readers guessing wrong. You think Jackson Lamb is going to zig, but he zags instead. Readers who enjoy espionage tales laced with dry humor are in for a real treat.

2 people found this helpful

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Jim D

Right up to standard

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2017

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Mick Herron has been compared with a number of writers, even Le Carre, but he really is incomparable in both senses of the word; I have encountered no-one with a style quite like his, and he is very, very good. In the Slough Street series (I haven't read any of his other books, yet) he displays mastery of plot and suspense. Quick changes back and forth between events in different locales speed the action along, and they are genuinely hard to put down. The prose is laconic, but little asides and descriptions, dripped like drops of acid into the text, are effective in giving a sense of character to both person and place. There’s a wry smile to be wrung from nearly every page.
Herron has shot himself in the foot in one way, though: sale of film rights seem unlikely to me. It would take a brave producer to have it filmed, and an even braver actor to take the lead role. Antisocial, scruffy, farting, scratching, drinking, smoking Jackson Lamb has to be the most unlikely protagonist (“hero” is simply not the right word) of any spy series, ever. Perhaps a TV series could be managed, but you're looking at something with the social skills of Doc Martin, the dress sense of Vera and the personal hygiene of roadkill.
One bit of advice: read them in order. There is continuity of essential personnel from book to book, but there are casualties as well as replacements along the way, and back stories may be difficult to pick up or understand if you don't know who is (or was) who.
I await the next Slough Street book eagerly.

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Lauren Klein

Good story

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2023

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The book is funny and the story is fast moving. I love the dialog and the characters, and Mick Herron’s writing.

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024

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Lots of muddied action, scathing words, and convoluted plot lines. It did become just a bit too muddled at times, and there were probably three to four more characters than necessary thrown in, but another good book in the lineup.

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024

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Another satisfying, hilarious work. Herron is a master. He’s original and creative. I’m steadily working through all of his books.

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Gordon Tuffin

Jackson Lamb managing up and down

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2020

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The master of Slough House, Jackson Lamb is a chain smoking, slovenly belching and farting machine. He also has the skills needed to survive when you are somewhere on the middle rungs of a spy bureau. His crew of Regents Park exiles ,also known as slow horses, spend their days at mind numbing clerical tasks. But somehow when called to action their response is adequate. Lamb has unique methods of motivating them . The kidnapping of one of their number , Catherine Standish, serves as further impetus.

Lamb also has to meet the challenge of managing up , fending off his boss Diane Taverner and her superior Ingrid Tearney, not to mention their overlord, Home Secretary Peter Judd , aptly described as a a loose cannon with a floppy fringe and bicycle (sound familiar?)

Be warned that Herron never dispatches the slow horses at a gallop. Take the time to savour his prose. Herron is a terrific writer, sprinkling his prose with humorous similies: horses that were walking dog food ; tightly wrapped as a fart in a colander. He starts the book with a bloke sporting a Batman costume punching Spiderman in the face. Herron seems to delight more in describing the figurative sharp elbows of the bureaucrats at Regents Park More than in the old ultraviolence which he also does very well.

The main contretemps is over a file that Dame Ingrid is anxious to bury. In light of current events, the secret she is hiding would amount to small beer , barely registering on the nudge nudge /wink wink scale.

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Laraine

4 1/2 stars. Every book in this terrific series is better than the one before.

Reviewed in Canada on December 21, 2022

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4 1/2 stars. This is the third book in Herron's excellent Sough House novels. This is the place where disgraced MI5 spooks go to be out of sight, out of mind. But when one of the team is kidnapped, she is asked the name of someone she trusts with her life. That operative gets a text with the photo of her tied up and is tasked with doing something to save her life. This involves breaching security to get a top secret document. This is just the beginning of an adventure that will involve all of the team at Slough House in varying degrees to try to find the hostage and to take down the people responsible for taking her. This was quite a terrific read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I beliueve that every book in this terrific series is better than the one before it so I expect to have some more really great reads ahead of me, as I bought all the books in the series. Herron did a great job on this particular book. I love all the quirky characters. The ending of this one blew me away.

Mrs Knapp!

At one point, I forgot to breathe.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2024

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Just brilliant. Beautifully written. Not a word out of place. The Boris Johnson avatar is entirely, chillingly believable. Really deftly plotted. I loved it. A day well spent.

Lenja

Slow Horses Win Hands Down!

Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2024

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Love these books. The dialogues are extremely funny and quick witted, the plots are fast and furious and the characters are simply great. Jackson Lamb is unique. Unforgettable!

Alexandre Paternotte

Brilliant

Reviewed in France on December 8, 2023

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Just finished the third of his novels
I think Herron is brilliant
It is superbly written
The dialogues are witty and the action good
Highly recommended reading

LUCILA TORRES

Novela de espias, original y trepidante. Recomendable total

Reviewed in Spain on August 16, 2020

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Son una colección de novelas de espias originales, buenisimas, con personajes estupendamente descritos y sentido del humor. El odioso y desagradable Lamb es un personalidad sorprendente. Lo odias pero no puedes evitar colgarte. Los demas, los pobres caballos lentos en su terrible oficina te provocan ternura. Las aventuras son trepidantes, el retorcimiento y falta de escrupulos de los dirigentes, imagino que muy real. Y cuando terminas una, necesitas seguir con la otra. Son seis, y espero que siga la saga. Recomendable total.

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