But his string of slow horses, now augmented by two more, still retain a spark of spirit because they know that Lamb is a spook, and a very good one at that. I should add that it’s well-written and the descriptions of place and atmosphere are as good as those of the characters.

A deserving winner of this year s prestigious CWA Gold Dagger and a book we awarded five stars, Dead Lions is a thriller with a comic touch. He is the author of the Slough House espionage series (soon to be an Apple TV+ show starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas), four Oxford mysteries, and several standalone novels. Slough House Book 2: Dickie Bow is not an obvious target for assassination but being dead doesn’t mean you can’t tell secrets.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. But I went ahead and finished all seven novels in the Slough House series before backtracking to review this one. After locating the photo and evading security, he and Lamb threaten to reveal Taverner's operation to the Director General of MI5 and the press.

Min covertly follows them back to a commercial address at Edgware Road but is confronted by Piotr, who puts a gun to his head. Some distance off, an ascending sequence of red lights indicated the mast at Didcot, but the cooling towers were invisible.From the Intelligence Service purgatory that is Slough House, where disgraced spies are sent to see out the dregs of their careers, Jackson Lamb is on his way to Oxford, where a former spook has turned up dead on a bus. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. A crackle of static and the voice died, though could faintly be heard continuing to broadcast in neighbouring carriages. The clues point to a Russian spy “legend” who inspired stories but was never thought to truly exist, Alexander Popov. If you've already read Mick Herron's "Slow Horses" you probably can't wait to get stuck into this, the next in the series, featuring the ghastly Jackson Lamb and his band of MI5 throw-backs.

But now he is well over weight, chain smoking, hard drinking, renowned for his voluminous farting and the owner of the most acerbic tongue you are ever likely to encounter. Min and Louisa are seconded by Webb to provide background security for a clandestine meeting at The Glasshouse between him and Arkady Pashkin, a representative of UK-based energy oligarch and defector Ilya Nevsky. There are twists and red herrings and the reader will find it hard not to cheer these misfits on as they do their best.in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter. Readers will be pleased to learn there are two and a half further volumes of this series for their entertainment and enjoyment.