an interesting novel about the "disgraced" MI5 agents who have been relegated to Slough House for their failures. this novel hits the slow horses close to home when one of their own becomes kidnapped and the team is trapped in a larger conspiracy. Overall this story was unique and really ties well into the series so far. enjoyable and fast paced.

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.

Another great read from Mick Herron.

All of the Slow Horses are back again, including Jackson Lamb with his ever worsening personal habits, River Cartwright, Diana Taverner and her on going plotting etc, it is a great read, especially as the basis of the story actually involves a kidnapping of a Slow Horse and the intended plan of getting rid of them all.

Looking forward t reading book 4 in the series

Suffice to say that I went out and bought the all the available published books that is how much I loved these books in the "Slough House" series.

A breath of fresh air in the noirish espionage genre - for there are certainly elements of noir in Jackson Lamb, our anti-hero and Cold War leftover.

A meandering story the leaves you wondering where you will end up - and not always at the conclusion you think you are heading towards.

I would love to see this as a TV series!

Real Tigers
By Mick Herron

3 stars.

Gripping Crime Triller.

Real Tigers is the third in Herron’ Jackson Lamb spy novels, and he doesn’t let the reader down.

Intelligence Officer Catherine Standish has been taken hostage, and believes the reason to be her ties to Jackson Lamb, the only man who can save her.

While I found the plot slow to start, the mystery deepened and thickened as the story unravelled.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy in return for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

#RealTigers #NetGalley

Reviewed by Heath Henwood
www.books-reviewed.weebly.com

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.

The Jackson Lamb series just keeps on getting better! 'Real Tigers' features Lamb and his Slough House misfits who have all failed in the job.

This one involves kidnapping, interference from above in MI5, the Slough House team getting embroiled in a security breach - all this is covered in a fast moving plot. You don't have to read these books in order, however if you can do as they build up a fascinating background to Lamb and his charges. I can't recommend these Mick Herron books highly enough and if you have yet to read one what are you waiting for?

Review published on Booklover Book Reviews website: http://bookloverbookreviews.com/2018/06/real-tigers-by-mick-herron-book-review.html

This is the 3rd book in the series and I’m definitely hooked. Not James Bond leaping from torrid exploit to torrid exploit just more normal people , written off by their mainstream bosses.
The plot of each novel is very different, but the twists and turns equally clever and varied. The whole team is managed and often manipulated by their boss Jackson Lamb. Lamb was once an active spy with a reputation and whilst his manner is abrasive he is very loyal to his team.
I am now bored by the extreme lengths the author goes to in an attempt to show how little Lamb cares for norms of social behaviour. I end up yelling “yes I get it he has poor personal hygiene now let’s get on with the story!!!!”

Real Tigers is an exemplary spy-fi novel.  It is clever, tightly plotted, and eerily pertinent, with characters who are way more human and believable than Bond or Bourne.  That is not to say there isn’t action - merely that superhuman feats are left to books by writers who aren’t trying to write a realistic spy novel.  Real Tigers moves at a faster pace than Dead Lions, which will make it appeal to a broader audience. There is a good bit of naturally occurring humor, but on the whole it is a dark and serious novel where warring factions within the service are as much a threat or possibly more than any outside force.  


In Real Tigers, a new minister is taking charge of the intelligence service, one who sees it as a ways of climbing higher, if he can make a big enough splash.  (Will remind you of someone bad hair and all) Slough House is drawn into the picture when Catherine Standish is kidnapped and asked one question- which of your colleagues do you trust with your life?  Jackson Lamb might not be anyone’s first choice on an ordinary day but when it comes to one of his “joes” being in trouble, he may be the only one able to unravel the mess.


5 / 5


I received a copy of Real Tigers from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


Crittermom

This is the third volume in Mick Herron's superb Jackson Lamb, espionage series. I read the fourth volume for Amazon Vine a few years ago, and came late to the first three books in the series. I recommend reading them in order, as although each book is a standalone story, the back story of the characters grows and evolves with each book. They are brilliant. I don't want to say anything about the plot for fear of spoilers, but if you love Le Carre and you want urban espionage bang up to date, these books are for you.

DNF

Changing POV so fast you barf. Already cartoon cliché plot and characters. Even worse than book #2, Dead Lions.

Ugh.

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 unique and hilarious rescue plan that still makes me snigger when I think of the book.

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!

Another great addition to the Slough House saga. A little bit rawer and a little bit more emotional perhaps, as people’s characters are exposed to a greater extent than they have been thus far.

Another great intro and conclusion, based on a theme that has become indicative of the series so far. A tightly constructed plot and some great lmao moments.

Favourite quote: ‘And that was when Roderick Ho drove a bus though the front door’
Thanks NetGalley and John Murray for another enjoyable review copy

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!

I absolutely love this series, and the third instalment is another great read.
A few months after the events of Dead Lions, and the Slow Horses are as always stuck doing menial admin tasks in Slough House, as London bakes during an unusually hot summer. Walking home, Catherine Standish meets a former lover from her days as a lush, but this is no chance encounter and she finds herself kidnapped for reasons she doesn’t understand. Asked which of her colleagues she trusts with her life, she picks River, so he is the one sent the hostage photo, and ordered to break into the MI5 base at Regents Park to steal a secret file. This doesn’t go well, and soon the whole team are involved in trying to rescue both of them.

Herron’s writing is again superb, with cutting humour and witty similes. The characters, most truly awful, are just brilliant: you want to cheer when the odious drug addict Shirley Dander backhands the loathsome misanthropic geek Roderick Ho, and cheer again when they come to the rescue of the team mates they don’t even like, because somehow, yet again, the noxious Jackson Lamb has inspired them. The evil politician Peter Judd, clearly modelled on BoJo, returns, and we learn more about the machinations of both Ingrid Tearney, the boss (“First desk”) and second desk Diana Taverner - I’m still unsure which is the more evil or Machiavellian.

I received a free ARC (all 5 books of the series) from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my God, I finished all these books by the 13th! *collapses into oozing puddle before picking up her next work assignment.*

I freaking love Mick Herron, and I'm not sure if there are very many authors I could have binged under such time pressures and still come out wanting more of. I love the Slow Horses so much, and am at the point where I'm sick of both Ingrid and Diana and their jockeying for power that leaves so many corpses behind. Real Tigers was pretty rough on my favorite of the Horses, Catherine Standish. Kidnapped by an old flame to further his mission for revenge, Catherine spends far too much time battling her inner demons... and then Jackson Lamb figuratively sucker punches her at the end. He didn't have to, but that's the thing about the denizens of Slough House, dumping ground of MI5's least capable: they're all painfully flawed in ways that make their teamwork, never mind success, not necessarily a foregone conclusion. As always, River Cartwright was a disaster from the start, and I'm starting to blame his grandfather for that: the Old Bastard filled River's head with such tales of derring-do as a child that grown-up River still forgets, to paraphrase Jackson, that he's part of MI5 and not Famous Five.

But the team muddles, mostly intact, through the task of recovering Catherine and putting at least a pause to the insane shenanigans between Ingrid and Diana, First and Second Desk of MI5. I very much want to read what happens next! These spy thrillers are part procedural, part slapstick and 100% entertaining.

OH MY GOD, NETGALLEY HAS SPOOK STREET AVAILABLE NOW! I'd cry tears of joy if I weren't so incredibly dried out by the weather rn, but ooh, what a terrific Valentine's gift to meeee! (I may also be sleep-deprived but seriously, Mr Herron's writing warrants this glee.)

I (again) enjoyed the third in this series featuring MI5 outcasts, overseen by Jackson Lamb.

When I've talked about the previous two books I've commented on the characters and plot but it occurs to me I probably hadn't been given Herron enough credit for his writing.

I noted in my review of book two, that he occasionally adopted a first person plural point of view (in that book, as a cat / mouse) and he does it again here in ghostly form. It's brilliantly clever and does an excellent job of drawing we readers into the scene. I'm not overly visual so describing environments to me rarely works, but following in the footsteps of a mouse / spirit or whatevs somehow seems to drag me into the scene before me.

And he has a way with words.... his writing is surprisingly lyrical but keeps a hurried pace at the same time.

Herron doesn't add to his team of 'slow horses' at Slough House (described as an 'administrative oubliette') this time around, but it kinda seems as if we may lose another familiar face. Yes, again!

As has been the case in both previous books, Jackson's team of slow horses are put into the field, despite supposedly being put to pasture. #sorrynotsorry

This time one of their own is in danger and the team's forced to act. They know they're merely puppets amidst a series of political games and manoeuvres... but in this outing there was double cross after double cross. With the odd triple cross thrown in for good measure.

I'm not entirely sure I knew who were the goodies vs the baddies by the end. I understood what the players wanted out of the games they were playing but not entirely sure there were any winners.

(And I really didn't mean to add sporting analogies into the horsey ones!)

I probably didn't enjoy this quite as much as its predecessor as it became a little too convoluted. But I cannot wait to read number 4!

3.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley and John Murray Publishing for the eARC.
This series is fast becoming one of my favorites, it's so smart and original. As I generally don't enjoy spy novels, it's surprising to me how much I'm loving these books.
Catherine Standish, one of the disgraced spooks at Slough House, is kidnapped by a vengeance seeking ex-soldier. The motley crew of 'slow horses' form a united front, despite all their usual differences, determined to rescue their colleague.
They need to somehow get into Regent's Park to access classified information in order to help free Catharine.
The comic undertones are as usual a real treat, even though the dark undertones of the reality of the political shenanigans are there as well. The vile new Home Secretary, Peter 'PJ' Judd is clearly someone we all recognize, brilliant...
Jackson Lamb, with all his repulsive habits, is back with a vengeance. Despite being misanthropic he will fight for his team of misfits and as he seems to have a slightly more favorable attitude towards Catherine, he is working hard to bring her back.
Another excellent book in a series that gets better with each book. Looking forward to Spook Street!