Earlier, I praised Slow Horses for its tone, humour and characters. Dead Lions continues the story and only improves on the original. Slough House still stands and the slow horses - washed up spies dejected by MI5 - still take care of menial tasks like archiving and background checks. There's Jackson Lamb, the out of shape cold war relic with bad personal hygiene. River Cartwright is as close as the series gets to having a 'straight man'. In Slow Horses he took centre stage and seemed destined to anchor the series. Here, he's merely one of half a dozen spooks, all equally interesting and engaging.
Senior spies at MI5 have made contact with a Russian oligarch who might be willing to spy for the British in exchange for political support. The mission is expedited, a meeting is set up - in what absolutely sounds like The Shard, but is not identified - and the intelligence community salivates in anticipation of the coup of the decade. Yet something is amiss. A retired British spy is found dead on a country bus. A long-disbanded Soviet spy ring may be rearing its head. The synopsis would fit any number of John le Carre's novels, but the result is fresh, funny and exhilarating.
Senior spies at MI5 have made contact with a Russian oligarch who might be willing to spy for the British in exchange for political support. The mission is expedited, a meeting is set up - in what absolutely sounds like The Shard, but is not identified - and the intelligence community salivates in anticipation of the coup of the decade. Yet something is amiss. A retired British spy is found dead on a country bus. A long-disbanded Soviet spy ring may be rearing its head. The synopsis would fit any number of John le Carre's novels, but the result is fresh, funny and exhilarating.
The strangest thing about Dead Lions is that it's almost needlessly short. It could easily be stretched to double its actual length (some 350 pages) without feeling bloated. There's a subplot involving a small village in the Cotswolds that, in itself, would make a full length crime novel. A picturesque town, forgotten by time, home to a a few hundred retired Londoners. Yet, the only clue leads there, to what can't possibly be a dead end. It makes sense to leave the reader wanting more, but I could have easily gotten lost in the relationships of these characters. Here, they operate in pairs, some at Slough House and others in the field. Some, like the newcomer whose name I forgot, seem destined to star in subsequent entries to the series.
The best trick in Herron's arsenal is something that can only be described as an inverse Ocean's Eleven. (Look away now if you ever intend to read Dead Lions). Ocean's Eleven is an elaborate heist movie, where the protagonists trick Casino owners out of their money. The viewer is fooled too, the crux of the plan is hidden until the very end. Dead Lions imagines that scenario from the casino owner's perspective. They must realise that something nefarious is going on. However, they are not privy to the plan and must wait for the crooks to reveal themselves. It's an ingenious way to build suspense. You know you've been had and you desperately try to understand how.
The best trick in Herron's arsenal is something that can only be described as an inverse Ocean's Eleven. (Look away now if you ever intend to read Dead Lions). Ocean's Eleven is an elaborate heist movie, where the protagonists trick Casino owners out of their money. The viewer is fooled too, the crux of the plan is hidden until the very end. Dead Lions imagines that scenario from the casino owner's perspective. They must realise that something nefarious is going on. However, they are not privy to the plan and must wait for the crooks to reveal themselves. It's an ingenious way to build suspense. You know you've been had and you desperately try to understand how.