Cultural Dessert

'Dead Lions' by Mick Herron

4 January 2024

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Slow Horses’, the opening book of Mick Herron's spy novel series (reviewed here in November 2023) so I was looking forward to reading the sequel ‘Dead Lions’ and it didn't disappoint. ‘Dead Lions’ further establishes the team of disgraced former spies operating out of Slough House in London, under the unconventional leadership of Jackson Lamb - an anti-hero in the mould of Long John Silver, Fagin or Logan Roy. ‘Dead Lions’ is a cleverly plotted novel with multiple strands and a series of bluffs and counter-bluffs. You are never quite sure whether you've worked out the answer to the riddle, or just what the other side wants you to think the answer is in order to distract you from what they are really doing. It’s nicely written, with a nod to Dickens in the descriptions of Slough House that bookend the novel through the eyes of two imagined four-legged intruders. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and I'm determined to read the novels before I start to watch the ‘Slow Horses’ TV series.

Labels: Books

posted by Robin Simpson @ 5:01 pm