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.

REAL TIGERS | Kirkus Reviews REAL TIGERS | Kirkus Reviews

This tight, literary, cliché-free novel, the second in British author Herron's Zoë Boehm series (after Down Cemetery RoadMasterful . . .Deliciously tongue-in-cheek and with a strikingly serpentine construction, it is a thriller that moves Herron close to the class of Graham Greene.”

Real Tigers | Crime Fiction Lover Real Tigers | Crime Fiction Lover

In Herron's dazzling third Zoë Boehm adventure, the second to appear in the U.S. (after 2004's The Last Voice You Hear Scott Shane's outstanding work Flee North tells the little-known tale of an unlikely partnership ... It is impossible not to be impressed by Herron’s use of language . . . A thoroughly entertaining tale.” From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels! 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.In Herron’s terrific, and terrifically funny, fourth Slough House novel (after 2016’s Real Tigers), London’s intelligence teams are on full alert after a suicide bomber kills dozens in a Continue reading » 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.” 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. 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.

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

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.” 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.” First Slow Horse book, after reading quite a few chapters, i could not get Into. Hoped my favorite character would return. (Had to listen 4-5 times to audiobook last chapters of novel previous to this one. Still in disbelief.) Love Heron’s London, his wit, capability with language and how skillfully characters and plots are crafted. Still, I am broken-hearted and may not be able to finish Bad Actors. Without Lamb’s knowledge, Louisa Guy and Min Harper are seconded by The Park on a baby sitting job. A Russian oligarch is visiting London and elements of The Park want to turn him because a potential future Russian president who owes British Intelligence would be a massive coupe. At the same time, Lamb is out in Oxford looking into the suspicious death of a retired agent. The only clue he finds is an undelivered text – Cicadas. So, what connects the oligarch with an old rumour of Russian sleeper agents? Herron won the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger for this novel, though for my money his debut is a better book. 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.”

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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. 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.