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.” 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. 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.”

Real Tigers by Mick Herron | Hachette UK Real Tigers by Mick Herron | Hachette UK

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 abduction of one of their own rouses the members of MI5’s dead-end Slough House ( Dead Lions, 2013, etc.) to action once more.

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Even readers who don’t care for the endless bureaucratic infighting will have to admire this 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. 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. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. 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. 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.

Mick Herron’s Slough House series The complete guide to Mick Herron’s Slough House series

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.” Funny, clever . . . Genuinely thrilling. The novel is equally noteworthy for its often lyrical prose.” 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.”