Real Tigers by Mick Herron

 

When one of the members of Slough House is kidnapped, the remaining slow horses have to help the kidnappers break into a secure MI5 store and steal classified documents.

Real Tigers by Mick Herron is the third book in the Slough House series. The story takes place shortly after the events of the second book, Dead Lions, with some of the repercussions still being felt. We have the same members of Slough House working their painstaking way through mindless paperwork as punishment for past failings. It’s the kidnapping of Catherine Standish that triggers events this time around.

Although Standish works for MI5, she was never a field agent, she was more of a PA, but it’s her chequered past that makes her a target. Standish doesn’t seem particularly upset about being held hostage, not only does she trust her kidnappers, she’s got faith in Jackson Lamb to save her.

Lamb is his usual obnoxious, lazy, prejudiced and obstinate self. Fans of the series will know this persona hides a sharp mind and the ability to appear from nowhere. As I was reading there were times when it felt like some of Lamb’s traits were beginning to rub off on River Cartwright. All of the slow horses get to display their skills, giving the reader a chance to learn more about their characters.

It is impossible to know who to trust, machinations are at play, with individuals prepared to stab each other in the back in order to further their own position. The only people who seem to show any kind of loyalty are the members of Slough House. Even once all the dust has settled power-plays are still in evidence as favours are owed and secrets are kept.

The writing is superb, Mick Herron shifts from the lyrical descriptions of Slough House to the odious outpourings of Lamb with ease, and there are times when the two collide, “the occasional bloom was a defiant gesture, a doily the pink and white of a conjunctivitis-riddled eye”.

I’m now in synch with the TV series which means that from the next book, Spook Street, everything will be a surprise. I just have to make sure I read it before December, but I can’t see that being a problem.

Author Details

Mick Herron is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in twenty-five languages, and are the basis of a major TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zoë Boehm series, and the standalone novels Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.