It has all the little twists and turns that you want form a Spy novel, the plot starts fast and runs hot, and it ticks all the boxes that make these sort of books worthwhile. Would I recommend Dead Lions? Well, to fans of the genre, definitely.

I hoped that as the series progressed the other characters would come into sharper focus, and maybe they will (this is only the second of several instalments), it just didn’t happen with Dead Lions. When I read the initial book in the series (Slow Horses) I was left with the same feeling loved Jackson Lamb but found the rest of the cast disappointing and the plot very much off the rack. For the most part they’re a caricature of the various types of losers you come across in corporate/office environment (I can’t speak for the world of Spy’s), and because of that you just don’t seem to register a personal connection with them. The problem with the book is that the rest of the characters just don’t feel real. More importantly though, he knows something you don’t, and there is real skill in Mick Herron’s writing because, despite all of the obvious triggers (which make you believe, that as the leader of the fools, he is nothing more than the most foolish of all), you immediately and throughout buy into the belief that Jackson Lamb is always two-steps ahead of you, and three-steps ahead of the plot. He’s obese, offensive, smelly, heavy smoking, and a border-line drunk. He’s just a really good character, the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing. You can read the blurb for this book elsewhere (in short: a hopeless band of misfits makes good, against the odds), but the only thing you really need to hear about is the leader of the Slough House cadre. Well, the answer to that is simple: Jackson Lamb.

Dead lions series