Real Tigers

Mick Herron’s Real Tigers is an example of why I love the crime/espionage genre. This is the fourth book in the Slough House series, and I’ve already raved about the first three books. This new one won the Golden Dagger aware of the Crime Writers’ Association of the United Kingdom in 2016, so it’s obvious that a lot of people are on board with me about that.

This story continues the saga of protagonist Jackson Lamb, one of the most vile and disgusting characters I’ve ever known to be written into the role of hero. He’s a disgusting human being, hardly the guy you would imagine riding to the rescue of others, but it’s what he does. In this fourth book, one of Lamb’s Slough House subordinates, Catherine Standish, is kidnapped. Catherine is an alcoholic who has been sober for a while, but she seems to fragile that when she disappeared, her colleagues initially assumed that she was off on a bender. But then River Cartwright, another Slough House character was caught trying to smuggle ultra top secret documents out of a secure location – he had been compromised in an extortion plot to get Catherine’s release. For Slough House, an operation that rarely saw anything more exciting that a paper cut, this was a remarkable series of events. The documents in question had to do with background information about the new political appointment, Peter Judd, to the position of Home Secretary, the ultimate boss of MI5 (Regent’s Park) and Slough House. Judd had been Regent’s Park harshest and loudest critic because it served his political ambitions. Interestingly, Judd’s own application to “The Service” had been turned down three decades earlier because he was a narcissistic sociopath.

But the intrigue also had to do with the head of MI5, Dame Ingrid Tearney and one of her second desks, Diana Taverner (“Lady Di”). It was no secret that Taverner coveted Tearney’s job, but given they were close to the same age and were approaching retirement age, Lady Di’s time was running out. Yes, Herron brings all these plots together with more great characters, while further developing the background about Lamb and his cast of underlings (Roderick Ho, Marcus Longridge, Louisa Guy, Standish, and Cartwright). This is an excellent book, but don’t start the Slough House series with this one – read the Slow Horses first. Herron is a master story teller and his use of language is particularly enjoyable. I’ve already downloaded, the next book in the series, Spook Street, which was just released.