Dead Lions

'The new king of the spy thriller' Mail on Sunday

Dead Lions by Mick Herron masterfully intertwines wit and suspense, placing us once again within the grimy walls of Slough House—a dumping ground for the disgraced and the demoted of the British Intelligence Service. Jackson Lamb, the irreverent and sharp-witted leader of this motley crew of ‘slow horses’, finds himself dragged into the shadowy depths of an old espionage mystery when a former colleague, Dickie Bow, is discovered dead on a bus in Oxford.

Once adept at walking the streets and tailing targets with skill, Dickie Bow was a relic of the Cold War era, a time when trust was scarcer than truth. But why would anyone want him dead now? In this page-turning novel, Lamb discovers a cryptic message left on Dickie’s phone, suggesting that a clandestine Russian operation might be unfolding within the very heart of Britain’s secret services. Despite their outcast status, Lamb and his team uncover the lurking dangers, reviving their faded spy instincts to follow the trail that Dickie couldn’t. The stakes are high, and this operation could shake the very foundations of the establishment they serve.

Herron's narrative seamlessly combines the tension of classic spycraft with dark comedy, making the escalating danger and unfolding betrayal both thrilling and grimly entertaining. Each character in Slough House is fleshed out with painstaking detail, bringing their personal failings and brilliant quirks to the forefront in this unmissable addition to the series.

'Mick Herron is an incredible writer' Mark Billingham

'The spycraft of le Carré refracted through the blackly comic vision of Joseph Heller's Catch-22' Financial Times