| Title | : | Real Tigers (Slough House, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1616956127 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781616956127 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 343 |
| Publication | : | First published January 19, 2016 |
| Awards | : | Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Shortlist (2017) |
Real Tigers (Slough House, #3) Reviews
-
Having recently read Dead Lions, I was really looking forward to encountering the failed 'slow horses' spooks of Slough House again. I have to say that I am coming to love this smart and compelling series so much. Our disgraced spooks go into action when one of their own, Catherine Standish, a recovering alcoholic, is kidnapped by an ex-soldier seeking vengeance. Her release depends on our spies infiltrating headquarters, Regent's Park, and acquiring classified information. Only nothing is as it seems and what we have is the tip of the iceberg that leads to other plots and counter plots in the intelligence services and the increasing involvement of the tigers. There is the usual Regent Park ambitions, intrigue and shenanigans. There is a deranged and twisted new Home Secretary, Peter 'PJ' Judd who is clearly based on a famous politician we are familiar with. Truth proves to be an exceedingly rare commodity. This is a story of spooks vs spooks rather than external threats and politicians focusing on self interest and their own agendas.
Marcus is a gambling addict, Shirley has her cocaine habit, River likes going into action, and Roddy Ho, whilst an internet marvel, lacks social skills, has bizarre fantasies and is a loser in the romance stakes. The iconic head of Slough House is the repulsive, grotesque and brilliant Jackson Lamb who despite his abrasive exterior is going to support and protect his spies. He is more than a match for the machinations of Regent Park, and in dealing with the political demands of PJ. As Regent Park do their usual best to use the slow horses as pawns to further their own ambitions and agendas, our spies do not take matters lying down, they fight back. They encounter murder, revenge, violence and a no holds barred paramilitary assault. Packed with numerous twists, the plotlines begin to come together.
There are considerable shifts in the narrative that indicate the level of intricate and complex multi-layered plotting in the novel. There is tension and suspense that keeps the reader hooked. The dialogue and writing is superb. The characters are what drive this story, and the character development is excellent. At the heart of it is the canny Jackson Lamb, a tour de force. The introduction of the venal PJ, the Home Secretary, is a nod to the true life realities of politics within the intelligence services and the threats it raises. There are plenty of comic touches including some that are slapstick. The dark humour is an underlying plank that characterises this entertaining series. Highly recommended read. Thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC. -
3.5
-
I am going to five star this one because it was so, so good! Three books into the series and the characters are really growing on me. All of them are drop outs and failures for some reason or other but when the pressure is on they all bring out their strengths and somehow they win!
The humour in these books is terrific too. I became one of those awful people who has to read bits out loud to anyone in the room and expects them to laugh too. (Even though they have no understanding of what went before or who the people are.)
Jackson Lamb is the most politically incorrect person ever and yet he gets away with it. He also provides most of the humour. River is the one you want to see succeed. Catherine seems to have so many secrets and did have a special understanding with Lamb although that may have been dealt a serious blow. I really like Louise too and she has some really good moments in this book.
The last page is just brilliant. Perfect even. Now I can't wait to get to book 4! -
After reading the first book in this series,
Slow Horses, I loved the characters. Reading the second book,
Dead Lions, confirmed that feeling. Reading this, the third, my fate is sealed! The Slough House characters have all committed some spy faux pas that's demoted them to slow horse status until they quit.
Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House, is a curmudgeonly father-type…sometimes. He has some disgusting personal habits. He’s a smart and experienced spook with lots of history. Catherine Standish is elderly, disillusioned, and a non-practicing alcoholic. River Cartwright is smart, but too quick to act. Louisa Guy is in mourning and most likely depressed. Marcus Longridge is a black ops type guy. Roderick Ho is the computer geek and very unsocial. Shirley Guy is young, likes her drink and coke. They are all doing boring, repetitive, and pointless tasks, and every one of them hopes to get back into MI5’s good graces.
Ingrid Tearney aka Dame Ingrid is Head of Service, and Diana “Lady Di” Taverner is second chair. They are both power-hungry, back-stabbing, conniving women. The plot is something one or both have devised and put into motion.
The books are highly character driven. There are character departures and new arrivals in each book of the series. There is black humor, sarcasm, and wit in the dialog. There is action because these spooks just can't stay at their desks!
I will be picking up the next book,
Spook Street, ASAP! -
4★
“‘What if they come after you?
With guns?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’ll be fine. Getting shot’s like falling off a log. It doesn’t take practice.’”
It’s as entertaining as the first two in the series, and I’ll include a few more quotes just because, well, just because. I haven’t actually compared page by page, but it felt as if there was a lot more violence and physical action in this one, mostly towards the end, which I’m sure many will find exciting. Myself, I prefer suspense and investigation and figuring things out. And the humour, of course.
Herron always leads us into the alley and the side door to the non-descript old building which is Slough House, home of the Slow Horses (a kind of rhyming slang). The description of the stairs, the rooms, the smells, the dingy nature of the place make you cringe to enter. Sometimes he has a cat take us in, or a mouse, or this time, a spirit. It’s that kind of place.
We follow the Slow Horses, the same disgraced spies as before who answer to Jackson Lamb, the disreputably attired and disgustingly behaved head of operations in Slough House. But there aren’t any “operations” because these people are no longer operatives. They have all been demoted and hidden away where they are “gradually disappearing under reams of yellowing paper,” never to be seen again.
“‘It’s not like your department’s a jewel in the Service’s crown, after all. It’s more like a slug in its lettuce patch.’”
They are unwanted. Jackson Lamb’s offsider, Catherine Standish, is a reformed alcoholic, and Lamb is the kind of guy who calls her in to sit across from him and pours them each a drink, determined to push her off the wagon. Nice guy. The others have different problems and all hold out hope that one day, some day, they’ll be transferred back. No chance.
Suddenly, there’s a kidnapping, a high level politician, a rivalry between the two women who work for the real spies, and there’s a hunt for the Grey Books. Trouble is, they are in the tightly protected, secure archives of Regent Park, headquarters of the proper spies.
It’s hard to know who the good guys are, as with most spy and cop stories, the good guys and bad guys are all pretty familiar with each other and have crossed paths in the past. When someone pops out from the shadows behind, we’re not sure if it’s someone following a character for interest, for protection, or for some sinister reason.
Roderick Ho is featured a bit more in this one. He’s the awkward computer nerd who surfs the Dark Net and doesn’t need to rely on Google to look things up. Give him a little while, and he’ll show you your bank account, your phone bill, and when you last went to the dentist.
“Because while Roderick Ho was a dick, that was only the most obvious thing about him, not the most important. Most important was, he knew his way round the cybersphere. This was arguably the only thing keeping him alive. If he weren’t occasionally useful, Marcus or Shirley would have battered him into a porridge by now.”
Our old friend River features heavily in the action (we like River), and while he and all the others are suddenly made “live” on an operation, Lamb finds himelf left with only Ho to drive him.
“‘Now go get your car. Chop chop.’
Ho was halfway down the stairs when Lamb called out, ‘Oh, and when I say “chop chop”, I hope you don’t think I’m being racially insensitive?’
‘No.’
‘Only you Chinkies can be pretty thin-skinned.’
It was going to be a long drive to High Wycombe.”
And it was.
Quite enjoyable. A little more bone-crunching action that didn’t interest me as much and not quite as compelling a read for me as the first two, but don’t let that put you off. These are entertaining stories written well, and I’m looking forward to the next. These are standalone stories but would still be more fun if you read them in order, I think. But if you can’t, just read what you can find!
Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. Hachette has reissued the first four in this series prior to the release of the fifth. What a good idea! -
4.5 ☆
The public was like one of those huge Pacific jellyfish; one enormous, pulsating mass of indifference, drifting wherever the current carried it; an organism without a motive, ambition or original sin to call its own, but which somehow believed, in whatever passed for its brain, that it chose its own leaders and had a say in its own destiny.
In
Real Tigers,
Mick Herron hits his stride. After reading the first two novels in his Slough House series, I have come to expect Herron's clever byzantine schemes, sardonic wit, and complex characters. In Real Tigers, Herron also plumbs the depths of ruthless ambition and pairs it with rapid-fire action.
Slough House is MI5's dumping grounds for its agents who have failed the grade.
[In] this “administrative oubliette,” as it was once dubbed, of the intelligence service ... as every office worker knows, it’s not the hope that kills you. It’s knowing it’s the hope that kills you that kills you.
As though the mind-sapping drudgery inflicted upon the Slough House's slow horses isn't sufficient punishment, others are not so content to forget them when it suits their purpose. As agents who have been left in a derelict cupboard, the slow horses can be pulled into ops without triggering an administrative review of expenses; and for more devious minds, they can be an expendable pawn on the political chessboard.
It was why they'd join the Service in the first place: this sneaking suspicion that the whole damn world was hostile. The only one you could trust were those you worked alongside, and you couldn't trust them either, because there was no friend falser than another spook. Always, they'd stab you in the back, cut you off at the knees or just plain die.
The right-wing Peter Judd has ascended to an influential position. He's the new Home Secretary and thus now in charge of MI5.
There was always trouble, and he always rose from the resulting miasma looking a lovable scamp: lovable, anyway, to that gratifyingly large sector of the populace to whom he'd always be a figure of fun: breathing a bit of the old jolly into politics, and where's the harm in that, eh? As for those who hated him, they were never going to change their minds, and since he was in a better position to fuck them up than they were him, they didn't give him sleepless nights.
One little problem is that Judd has consistently been MI5's loudest critic. This antipathy could be traced back to the Service's long ago rejection of Judd's employment application.
... but [Judd's] psychological assessment had been so damning ... that even now, old hands agreed, it cut both ways. On the downside, they were paying the price for having pissed off a narcissistic sociopath with family money, a power complex and a talent for bearing a grudge; but on the up, had Judd actually been allowed into the Service, he'd almost certainly have escalated the Cold War into a hot one...
So will the newly powerful, biggest critic intervene when one of the long term denizens of Slough House gets snatched shortly after leaving the premises? The victim is asked for the name of a person who could be trusted with her life in the balance, because the ransom demand will be required from that person. And although most of the slow horses have undergone training for operatives, their minds and skills have dulled under the enforced inertia as directed by Jackson Lamb, the Slough House boss, which increases the odds for screwing up.
“A birdy tells me you’ve got one of mine in your lock-up.”
“That would be River Cartwright.”
“Yes, but don’t blame me. I think his mother was a hippy.”
“Smoke a lot of dope while he was in the womb, did she? That might explain today’s dipshit behaviour. And I thought he was one of your cleverer boys.”
“Mind like a razor,” Lamb agreed. “Disposable.”
Jackson Lamb... for all his faults --and that wasn't a short list-- would walk through fire for a joe in peril ...
Buckle your seat belts because the slow horses have to run fast to evade danger in Real Tigers. While Herron has so far written the novels as standalones, a reader won't fully appreciate the complex characters without knowing the details of their earlier histories. What a treat for new readers.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
2nd Reading -
In
Real Tigers, addictions run deep as adrenaline and tempers surge hot as Slough House faces dangers from both inside and out of MI5. While there's no lady behind door number one, door number two hides a tiger.
Mick Herron takes readers on an Alice-in-Wonderland roller-coaster. Strap yourself tight and enjoy the ride. Unchanged rating of 4.5 ☆
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Listed in GR sequence, but not necessarily in chronological order:
#1
Slow Horses 4 ☆
#2
Dead Lions 4 ☆
#2.5
The List 4 ☆
#4
Spook Street 5 ☆
#5
London Rules 4.5 ☆
#5.5
Marylebone Drop 4 ☆
#6
Joe Country 5 ☆
#6.5
The Catch 4 ☆
#7
Slough House 4.5 ☆
#8
Bad Actors 4 ☆ -
I think I've said before how much I love this series and this third episode has only re-affirmed that. This time the threat is not from outside Regents Park and MI5 but inside as politicians and the head and deputy head of MI5 play dangerous power games to gain control over each other. The Slow Horses get dragged in when one of their number, Catherine Standish is kidnapped and held ransom in exchange for certain documents from the MI5 archives. Up against a private army run by an ex soldier with his own agenda, the bunch of misfits from Slough House are soon back in the field fighting for their lives.
The plot is clever and multilayered and a delight to see unfold but it is the characters that continue to shine in this series. Jackson Lamb is just brilliant - it's hard to know how much of his character as a shambolic man with disgusting personal hygeine and eating habits is a devious shield behind which he hides his true intelligence and astuteness. All the characters get their moment in the spotlight, including the head of MI5, Ingrid Tierney and her second desk Diana 'Lady Di' Taverner, both of them lethal and manipulative, as well as the odious Home Secretary Judd with Prime Ministerial ambitions. As with the earlier books, there is much dark humour in Herron's wonderful writing, both in the situations his misfits find themselves in as well as the dialogue. One of the memorable moments of the book occurs when Roddy Ho is forcibly separated from his computer and dreams of what he'd like to do to women (if only he got the chance) and taken out into the field by Lamb. Told to come to Lamb's rescue if he doesn't reappear Roddy comes up with a equally unique and inept rescue plan that still makes me snigger when I think of the book.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Hachette for a digital copy to read. -
This is the third in the Slough House series, where the ‘Slow Horses’ reside – those M15 operatives who have made mistakes and have been shunted off to do administrative tasks; either because of personal failures or embarrassing mistakes. Slough House is presided over by Jackson Lamb, who, although now he appears to be slovenly, unkempt and interested only in himself, was once an undercover operative during the Cold War and, despite his appearances, is not only still quite capable of out manoeuvring those at the Park, but he is fiercely loyal to those he is responsible for and anyone he considers to be one of his own.
One of the members of Lamb’s team is recovering alcoholic, Catherine Standish. Although it is difficult to say that Lamb is fond of any of the inhabitants of Slough House; Catherine acts as something of a buffer between him and everyone else and, as such, he at least notices she is gone. The reason for her sudden absence is that she is snatched in what appears to be a straightforward kidnap. However, as with all of these novels, nothing is straightforward and the Slow Horses may soon be heading back into the field and into danger as they become involved in a complicated and complex plot .
I would really suggest that these books be read in order – the first being “Slow Horses,” followed by “Dead Lions.” This is a very believable world of spooks, politics, double dealing, conspiracy, intrigue and naked ambition; all wrapped up with very British concerns of saving money, muddling through, often with no discernable plan, and wrapping the intention to win at all costs in the politest language possible. Savagery, but all done with a smile, and very dark humour. At the centre of every web is the magnificent Jackson Lamb, who suddenly emerges from his seeming stupor to take on his superiors and take back what he considers to be rightfully his.
Despite the fact that Slough House is seen very much as the place where the losers of the Secret Service are made to regret the way their career has collapsed, it is also, very obviously, a thorn in the side of those in power. These include new Home Secretary Peter Judd (who bears more than a little resemblance to a current politician), the head of the Park, Ingrid Tearney and her second in command, Diana Taverner. However, all of these political, and power players, have their own agenda and, in order to gain the upper hand, Lamb must outmanoeuvre them all. This series has been my first great series discovery of 2017 and I am so glad that I finally got around to reading the first novel. -
A real page turner!
& this was very welcome as I have just had a DNF on a very turgid book!
Slough House has two more operatives- although I am using 'operative' in the loosest sense of the word. Slough House is where failed MI5 spies go to finish out their working days - or hopefully take the hint & retire gracefully from the field.Nobody left Slough House at the end of a working day feeling like they'd contributed to the security of the nation. They left it feeling like their brains had been fed through a juicer.
This time one of the more likeablepen pushersoperatives has been kidnapped & Jackson Lamb's failures prove that they still have their guts, ambition & a certain crazy loyalty. I found the book nearly impossible to put down.
My only quibbles are that Lamb is getting ever more gross (seriously it sounds like the man never takes a shower) & that most of the Slow Horses (with the exception of Jackson, River & Catherine) seem to speak with the same voice. It does make it hard to distinguish between the characters.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess... -
I just adore Mick Herron’s subtle, dry humor that shines through this story. In this book, one of their own has been kidnapped. The Slow Horses of Slough House must come together to rescue her from a soldier, bent on revenge. That involves stealing classified intel from HQ at Regent’s Park.
I love Herron’s group of misfits. Each has had a failure that has brought them to Slough House, but they also have their individual strengths. Each has their dream of escaping Slough House and returning to Regent’s Park. All except Jackson Lamb, who oversees them and harbors no such illusions. He is brilliant but is just a disgusting human being, between his racism, misogyny and horrible personal habits.
Herron writes a romping great story. I’m not a big fan of “spy thrillers” but this series is the exception to the rule. I loved the different convolutions and the changing sense of who the bad guy was. I’m so happy there are several more in this series to entertain me before I’m stucking waiting for each new one to arrive.
Gerald Doyle is perfect as the narrator. -
Catherine Standish was shocked to bump into an old flame as she left Slough House for home, but when she became aware of being followed, she did her best to out maneuver her foe. But suddenly she was surrounded and being bundled into the back of a black van. The subsequent journey wasn’t pleasant, chained and bound as she was, but it was when she was in the room by herself that she became frightened. Why had she been kidnapped? And why did they want to know a person’s name?
Slough House, the home of failed, disgraced MI5 spooks was where Catherine worked. They all had their problems – Catherine was a recovering alcoholic – but with Jackson Lamb at the helm the agents would do their best to infiltrate Regent’s Park and uncover the conspiracy which threatened Catherine, Slough House and beyond.
Real Tigers is the third in the Slough House series by Mick Herron, and the best I’ve read so far IMO. Humerous and dark, the odious Jackson Lamb stands out among his colleagues. The twists and turns are littered with dry wit and sarcasm – the plot is complex and entertaining. Recommended to fans of spy thrillers.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. -
This series is really growing on me. Who can resist the slow horses, the failed MI-5 agents, these anti-Bonds? All of them desperately want to be back in the espionage game and not pushing paper after boring paper over in Slough House, a facility so obscure many members-in-good-standing of MI-5 don’t even know it exists. So when any excuse presents itself, they fall all over themselves to get out there and try to kick some butt.
For me, it’s the characters that really make these stories work. I can’t help but root for River Cartwright, who ended up at Slough House when a practice op that he was running was sabotaged by a frenemy and went horribly wrong. I’m cheering for him to finally be able to prove his worth and go back to the main office. All the denizens of Slough House have some horrible failure in their backgrounds—alcoholism, gambling addiction, a reliance on cocaine, you name it. And then there’s my favourite—Rodney Ho, who is just so obnoxious that no one wants him in their office. Rodney has no social skills, a vivid fantasy life, and the ability to work the internet like no one else in the office. If you’re a Criminal Minds fan, think of him as a male version of Garcia with no redeeming human graces. His misguided attempts to blackmail the other slow horses or try to attract romantic attention provide the light moments in these thrillers.
Of course, there is always Jackson Lamb, the rather revolting supervisor of this motley lot. Messy, rude, bigoted, and able to produce a reeking fart at will, he is about as far from the Bond ideal as you can get, and yet he proves himself a very capable agent on many occasions. One of the reasons that I keep reading is to figure out exactly how Lamb got to this situation.
If you’re tired of professional spies wearing slick clothes and drinking sophisticated cocktails, give the Slough House bunch a try. I think you’ll be totally entertained. -
I have really come to love this series. Slough House is where the 'slow horses' are put out to pasture. Failed spooks are given boring and repetitive work in the hope that they will resign. But every now and then something comes along that shakes up their world. In this case Catherine Standish, a recovering alcoholic, is kidnapped by a former soldier. To have her released he wants 'someone she trusts' to break into Regents Park (where the real spooks work) and steal a file. She picks River Cartwright and he gets pretty close, but no cigar!
But because nothing is ever as it seems the former soldier is not the one pulling the strings. There is an elaborate plot afoot involving the new Home Secretary, Peter Judd, an odious man with higher ambitions and the head (Dame Ingrid Tearney) and second desk of MI5 (Diana Taverner). Things soon go to shit and the leader of the slow horses, the foul mouthed and foul farting Jackson Lamb, must go in to bat for his troops. Much as he disparages them internally, no one outside gets to mess with his people. Lamb still has his finger on the pulse and in every pie and seeks to outwit the real spies at their own game.
The dialogue is exquisitely sharp and often darkly humorous. I love the characters. Failed as they are they all have certain strengths and can pull together, under the dubious leadership of Lamb, to protect their own. The cast of characters seems to change slightly with each book which helps to keep it fresh, but they are certainly what makes this series so awesome. -
![Terence M - [back to abnormal :]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1652839090i/6658001._UX200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
3.5-Stars - I liked it more than not
Real Tigers (Slough House, #3) by Mick Herron
Audiobook - 10:49 Hours - Narration by Seán Barrett
The following will serve as my review for "Real Tigers":
Extracts from my listening activity:
June 28, 2022 - @ 50%. "I have reached CD 06, half-way through my return to the "Slough House" series, and I am delighted with this story so far. Of interest is the fact that, in my opinion, none of the 'good guys' individually is really likeable, yet one easily becomes committed to the 'good guys' as a group" (Audible Audio Edition)
July 8, 2022 – @ 92%. "I am afraid that the goings-on of the "Slow Horses" all became a bit tedious by the time I had listened to 10 hours of this book. Mostly I liked it, but the implausibility of the plot/storyline started to get to me and I was tiring of the rudeness and corny humour of Jackson Lamb and his crew. The narration by Seán Barrett was excellent." (Audible Audio Edition) -
Tercera novela de espías perteneciente a la serie de La casa de la ciénaga, que es el lugar al que van a parar los agentes del MI5 condenados al ostracismo, a desempeñar tediosos trabajos burocráticos con la esperanza de que se aburran y dejen el servicio.
Me lo paso pipa leyendo estas novelas, donde siempre se lía muy gorda, la acción no decae y los personajes son estupendos, con un Jackson Lamb a la cabeza que no puede ser más zafio, grosero y asquerosito, pero también muy efectivo.
Muy entretenido! -
This is the 3rd book in the 'Slough House' series by author Mick Herron. Slough House is a dumping ground for British intelligence agents who have messed up a case. The "slow horses," are given menial tasks rather than be trusted on bigger cases.
The more I read of this series the more I like it. Another adventure for the rejected spies that is full of humour and a decent plot. On to the next book in the series.
I would like to thank Net Galley and John Murray Press for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. -
I think this series is getting better and better. The writing is reliably sharp and funny, the pace is breakneck, the characters are becoming people that I care about, and the plot is entirely believable - not that I know much (anything) about the world of espionage, but I do know a thing or two about working in a hyper-political government department...
All the action takes place over a period of about 40 hours, starting at knock-off time on the day that Standish runs into her past. By lunchtime two days later, there are bodies all over the place and the landscape at MI5, and Slough House in particular, may have changed forever.
In the wrap-up there are two key questions left unanswered for me, which just makes me want to get my hands on #4 ASAP. -
It’s a spy house full of losers, has-beens, outcasts, discards. Author Herron writes a cast of baggage-ridden characters that seem irredeemable. They are so full of flaws they actually become engaging. Verbal barbs come pecking down like a hail storm while the plot becomes more complicated. There are so many plot changes I can’t remember what I originally thought was going on.
This latest in the series is a mixture of British politics and subterfuge which goes to show that clandestine and deceitful actions aren’t limited to the international spy game. It’s a very complicated plot and a slightly different take on spies vs terrorists.
3 stars for plot cohesiveness. 5 stars for writing. 4 stars because humor and the ending. -
December 30, 2022 Update Teaser Trailer is up for "Slow Horses" Season 3 to be based on Slough House Book 3 "Real Tigers". Was shown at the end Season 2 episode 6 and is also on YouTube
here.
June 1, 2022 Update Apple TV+ series 'Slow Horses' renewed for Seasons 3 and 4, to be based on Books 3 'Real Tigers' and 4 'Spook Street'. Story at
Variety.
Slow Horses Redux
Review of the Recorded Books audiobook edition (January 2016) narrated by
Gerard Doyle of the original Soho Crime hardcover (January 2016)“Minister, precisely what is this about?”
“Well, it’s quite simple, Dame Ingrid. Tell me, are you familiar with the term ‘tiger team’?”
Dame Ingrid lowered her teacup.
“Oh dear,” she said.
... [later] ...
“A tiger team,” Ingrid Tearney said.
“A tiger team.”
“I know perfectly well what a tiger team is,” she told him.
That feeling she was getting now was of Judd’s fingers round her throat.
Tiger teams were hired guns, essentially. Hired not to wipe out your enemies but to test the strength of your own defences. You set a tiger team to launch a simulated attack: recruited hackers to stress-test security systems, assigned a wet-squad to put a bodyguard team through its paces, and so on. Earlier that year, she had herself overseen a Service-propelled assault on one of the city’s major utility providers, to verify concerns that the capital’s infrastructure was dangerously vulnerable to attack.
- excerpt from Real Tigers.Lamb threw River’s phone back at him. “Monteith’s crew was a tiger team. Hired by Judd. And you, you moron, played right into his hands.”
Marcus said, “So who whacked him?”
“That’s the thing about tigers, isn’t it? Some of them turn out to be real.”
“So who were they testing?” River asked. “Us or the Park?”
Lamb stared at him for what felt like a full minute and, Lamb being Lamb, might well have been, before starting to laugh. Still being Lamb, this was a full-body exercise: his frame shook, and his guffaws filled the room. Head flung back, he looked like an evil clown. Where a shirt button had popped, a hairy patch of stomach winked at the room.
“Jesus wept,” he said at last. “Sorry, but that is just so fucking funny. Us or the Park. You’ll be wanting a licence to kill next.” He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and humour vanished. “Do you seriously think Judd wants to test how effective or secure Slough House is? He wants this place packed into a skip, and when I say ‘this place,’ I’m including you comedians.” - excerpt from Real Tigers.
Reading Mick Herron's Slough House books in quick succession does help you to stay familiar with the subplots which would be harder to remember if the previous one had been read a year ago. Book 3 Real Tigers has a commonality with Book 1 Slow Horses in that the main plot is instigated 'in-house.' Home Secretary Peter Judd (the Cabinet minister in charge of the Security Services) has arranged a 'tiger attack' which caused the kidnapping of Slough House's Catherine Standish with agent River Cartwright being blackmailed into a plot as he tries to rescue her. Cartwright is caught attempting to breach the security of MI5's Regent's Park head office due to the blackmail and Judd's real goal becomes clear, the disgrace and closure of Slough House. The kidnap plot goes wrong though and the 'tigers' turn real with a plot of their own.
Jackson Lamb, the slovenly & flatulent head of Slough House's motley crew, is all too familiar with the ways and means of bureaucratic backstabbing and incompetence. He marshals his forces to defuse the situation, to restore Cartwright's career and to rescue Standish. Will Minister Judd, First Desk Ingrid Tearney and Second Desk Diana Taverner be able to stop him?
The agents of Slough House, aka the "Slow Horses," are a group from the MI5 Security Service who for various reasons (e.g. bungled field assignments, alcoholism, poor social skills, etc.) have been shunted aside from head office or field operations and sent to work at their off-site location, a pre-retirement resting stop of paper pushing & electronic surveillance to keep them out of the way of their supposed betters.
I am especially enjoying this series now with having the background of seeing Season 1 of its television adaptation. The dark humour and the regular themes of the underdogs winning out against the monolith of cold-blooded bureaucracy is a real treat. The narration by regular Gerard Doyle in this audiobook edition was excellent as always.
Trivia and Links
Real Tigers could be the basis for a Season 3 of the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses (2022 - ?), if the show is renewed after Season 2. You can watch the Season 2 trailer (based on Book 2 "Dead Lions") on YouTube
here. You can watch the Season 1 trailer (based on Book 1 "Slow Horses") on YouTube
here. -
I read
Mick Herron's
Real Tigers (2016) (Slough House #3) in 2018 and then, as part of a reread of the entire series, reread it in 2022. Second time round it was better than ever.
If you love
John le Carré's Smiley books then you will find much to love in
Mick Herron's Slough House series which contain the similar level of clever and compelling prose, memorable characters, and deftly handled plots.
Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, is a magnificent creation. Think of a brutal Falstaff in charge of a bunch of misfits and losers but one who, despite his appearance and attitude, is astute and a person to be reckoned with.
In
Real Tigers (Slough House #3) Lamb gets dragged into more high level machinations between his boss, head of 'Second Desk' Diana Taverner, and his boss's boss Dame Ingrid Tierney, the head of the service. Factor in the Boris Johnson-esque Peter Judd, currently Home Secretary, but with an eye on the PM's role, and the scene is set for some classic Jackson Lamb moments and another wonderful Slough House tale.
Jackson Lamb's team of "slow horses" get dragged straight into dangerous territory when one of their colleagues, Catherine Standish, is kidnapped by a former soldier and held hostage. This is the cue for another original and surprising plot, filled with some great twists, a sense of jeopardy, and some splendid humour.
These Slough House books have got the lot and, as I'm discovering, repay multiple reads.
5/5
London's Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their spy careers pushing paper. But when one of these “slow horses” is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, the agents must breach the defenses of Regent’s Park to steal valuable intel in exchange for their comrade’s safety. The kidnapping is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but also the highest authorities in the Security Service. After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the slow horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House, but of MI5 itself. -
It all begins when Batman & Spiderman meet on a rooftop in London. Yes, really. It may seem like an odd start but no worries. It's merely the first step into a plot with more twists & switchbacks than your average maze.
This is book #3 in the "Slough House" series. And it's another riveting tale with a healthy dose of laugh out loud black humour.
Slough House is the end of the road for MI5 agents. Not just anyone can get in. Each of these men & women has screwed up royally at some point in their career. Now they perform tasks so mind numbing, the tedium is only relieved by boredom.
But there's about to be a shake-up in the routine. When one of them gets proof a coworker has been snatched, it sets in motion a chain of events that will see them dusting off skills they haven't used in a long time.
Meanwhile, over at Regent Park, the bigwigs at MI5 have their own shake-up to deal with. There's a new Home Secretary overseeing the intelligence service & flexing his political muscle. He's also crazy. Forget foreign terrorists...you're more likely to be taken out by a colleague. Lying is like breathing for these people, necessary for life & they've elevated backstabbing to a level worthy of the Olympics.
As the story progresses, separate plot lines & characters begin to converge as old secrets & alliances come to light. Turns out while you were busy being entertained by machaivellian office politics, a classic game of spy vs. spy was underway.
This is not a standard thriller pitting the bad guys against the good. It's more like the ethically challenged against the least reprehensible. Luckily for us, they're hilarious.
Jackson Lamb rules Slough House with an iron fist & he's an equal opportunity offender. A memo outlining PC practices would quickly die of loneliness in the tip he calls an office. But don't be fooled. His caustic barbs (& dubious hygiene) provide cover for a man who's seen it all. Nothing gets by him & he's secretly protective of his little flock of misfits.
They include recovered alcoholic Catherine Standish, trying-to-quit gambler Marcus Longridge & actively delusional Rodney Ho. As for Home Secretary Peter Judd, all I can say is....eeewww.
What a great read. The author combines well developed characters with darkly funny dialogue them wraps them up tight in a smart, intricate plot. The last third is a full on thriller that has you turning the pages to see who is left standing. And just when your heart rate returns to normal...well, that would be telling.
This can be read as a stand alone but I'd recommend starting with "Slow Horses". -
really enjoy Mick Herron's writing! It is witty, sharp and full of snark.
Real Tigers has the "slow horses" team back again in another amusing, tension filled episode in the Slough House series. They are a bunch of MI5 failures who spend their days scanning data looking for anomalies and dreaming of the break that will see them back at Regent's Park.
Those at the top, pulling the strings at Regent's Park, are constantly trying to back-stab each other, continually worried about their place in the hierarchy.
River once again acts before thinking, as he goes out on his own to solve a case. And Regent's Park are at the centre of a botched operation, calling in the slow horses to be the fall guys.
Sometimes I feel Herron doesn't like his characters. He puts them through trying situations and they never seem to get anything right. They constantly bicker and don't even like each other. However, all this suffering only makes them more endearing but don't get too attached as Herron doesn't baulk at killing them off.
Prepare for a wild ride with this story of corruption, double crossing, secrets and murder.
* I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley -
Like most forms of corruption, it began with mean in suits.
This series is just fantastic - Mick Herron doesn't hold back when he's crafting these spy thrillers, nor does he when producing a just-fictionalised-enough politician with floppy hair, a private school background, and a personality shaped around concealing his sociopathy.
The Slow Horses are usually the only even semi-likeable characters in these books, and though Lamb might be the exception to that rule, it's his house and his horses I've grown so attached to. Which meant the kidnapping that started this book was actually worrying - and that's exactly what I want in a thriller, stakes. Herron has, once again, made a nice and twisty story, one that brings the real world right into spy games. Seriously, there's never a moment Lamb can't ruin, though I quite liked the side story-thread of "how come this place smells like cheese?".
I'll be interested to see how the next book shakes out - while (as usual, and I appreciate it) this book stands alone and wraps up at the end, that wrap-up involves quite a few metaphorical bombs going off in various ways. The landscape of book 4 might be something quite new to see. -
I think I'd argue that is my favourite of the series so far. Let's call them "Jackson Lamb" books shall we as he is such an outstanding character creation. The basic spy action is fairly day to day stuff really. It is Lamb that lifts this to another level for me. His humour - so utterly incorrect and razor sharp - is something that often eaves me chuckling aloud!
Do read the books in order for a preference to allow the characters and ideas to develop in your mind. Maybe not really 5 star but 4.5 and rounded. I'll definitely continue reading the series. -
Me ha encantado. Magnífica la trilogía, aunque este es el que más me ha gustado de los 3. Imprescindible leer los dos anteriores y por orden para saber de que va el tema. El 1º que se titula "Caballos lentos" y el 2º "Leones muertos" que junto con este 3º forman la trilogía "Casa de la Ciénaga". Espías del MI5 apartados del cuerpo y que forman una galería de personajes maravillosos. Pero si hay alguno que merece mucho la pena destacar es el jefe de esta banda de defenestrados, Jackson Lamb, un tipo machista, grosero, zafio y más listo que el hambre, que me ha parecido un personaje maravilloso, genial, a pesar de todas sus taras. Pues eso, que me lo he pasado bomba.
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Favorite quotes:
"Fate was the kind of attack dog you didn't want to taunt."
"Lamb was as tightly wrapped as a fart in a colander."
"Even fast horses finish at the knacker's yard. That slow horses get there first was one of life's little ironies. He finished his tea and reached for his phone."
"Computers talk to each other [...] that's what they are for. Your generation can't boil an egg without going online. You rely on them for everything. But you tend to overlook their major function which is that they store information, but only in order to divulge it."
"Electronic poaching had replaced the nuclear threat as the big fear. The Service like to steal but it hated being robbed."
"He's in MI-5 not the Famous Five" is a reference to the series of books about five child sleuths who enjoyed adventures by Enid Blyton. Also, "You're in the Secret Service, not the Secret Seven" refers to another of Enid Blyton's highly popular series about a younger set of child sleuths.
I was truly impressed by the descriptions and self-talk of a recovering alcoholic provided with wine while in captivity. She reasons, "Eating would disturb the unity of the tray. If she ate the sandwich, the apple, or the flapjack, or drank the water she would bring the wine into focus. So it was best if she left things as they were allowing the wine to blend into the background. If she continued not to notice it its threat would be neutralized, it would offer no danger." It was tantalizing waiting to see if she would cave while truly cheering her on and wanting her to hold out and hold on to the success she had achieved thus far.
"They sat in silence, their anger trying out different shapes."
Here is an example of place and atmosphere setting that I enjoyed so much: "They stood for a moment, breathing hard, as yet another train went past, casting brief slices of light through the gaps in the breeze-block wall, and rustling through the litter with its draught. And then it was dark once more, and the air hung heavy with heat, and the distant wail of the city throbbed and stammered." -
This is the 3rd outing for the Slow Horses - the British Secret Service failures who work at Slough House. The action fairly races along in this story, so much so that I struggled to keep up. When one of the Slow Horses is kidnapped, the rest set out to find out who is behind this assault on their colleague and, with their boss Jackson Lamb in charge, the team break all the rules as the bickering between them - and their overlords at Regent's Park, the home of Britain's "proper" spies - continues as before. This time, a senior politician - who seems uncannily similar to Britain's current foreign secretary - is pulling the strings. Or is he? At least 2 senior figures at Regent's Park think that they are in control of events. As the story unfolds, it's clear that grave mistakes have been made in the past and someone is out to settle an old score which is buried amid "The Grey Books", located in an out of the way underground store and including a lot of secrets which the British Government would rather no one knew about. A terrific read, recommended for any fans of spy stories with more than a dash of dark humour.
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I continue to love this series about the washed-up failed MI5 agents of Slough House and their repulsive Falstaffian boss Jackson Lamb. I found it harder to get into this one (grim start, or possibly my reading slump) but having pushed through, it took off around 30% and I wolfed the rest. The characters are all fairly disheartening (lots of self destructive behaviour) and flawed and there is only the faintest spirit of "becoming a close knit team" happening despite this being book 3, which is glorious. Very funny in a dark way, terrific twisty plot, no fear of killing off important people. Also the recurring bad-guy Home Secretary (populist floppy haired randy Etonian arsehole) is so obviously Boris Johnson I'm staggered the publisher let him get away with it, and this is hilarious. Finished it, bought the next.
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Real Tigers is the third book in Mick Herron's Slough House series. Slough House is the hinterlands of the British intelligence service to which screw-ups are banished and are given unimaginably boring office assignments, tantamount to comparing the telephone books of two major cities to determine the comparative numbers of people named "Norman" are listed in each.
Jackson Lamb, the leader of Slough House, manages to come up with these tasks for his Slow Horses, as they are called by others in the Service. But God help the person or group that does one of his 'joes' harm - joes being his term for service members who work in the field, even including Slough House.
One of his joes is kidnapped and, as the slow horses react, he fires two of them as a motivational technique, the slow horses gallop off in all directions, and Jackson, himself, must fly into action. Chaos, complexity, and confusion ensue.
Herron has a remarkably unique plot construction and writing style which I find very clever and engaging although, I must admit, I am periodically left in the weeds trying to figure out what happened so I have to go back and reread a portion. The level of complexity in this book was a bit more than the previous two and thus the rating of four rather than five. If it turns out that I have rated previous Herron books four, well, then we're both a bit confused!
I do look forward to reading the next book in the series although I never read books by the same author consecutively because......well, just because.
Over and Out
