Real Tigers: Slough House Thriller 3

Product Information

Catherine Standish is Lamb’s assistant, and a recovering alcoholic. She used to assist Charles Partner, who was First Desk at Regents Park until his suicide – something it’s rumoured Lamb might have had a hand in arranging. Partner had been selling secrets to the Russians. Funny, clever . . . Genuinely thrilling. The novel is equally noteworthy for its often lyrical prose.”

In the dilapidated offices of Slough House, these files spooks spend their time on various pointless tasks, designed to break their will and bring about their resignations, avoiding the hassle, expense and bad publicity of employment tribunals. One of the first things to appreciate is that each novel is an underdog story – a group of individuals, under-qualified and under-resourced, who have to beat their better-off cousins at The Park to save the day. Louisa Guy was sent to Slough House after she lost a tail involved in gun smuggling. She is one of the most competent agents and appears in every book. She and Min Harper had a brief but intense affair which ended in tragic circumstances. Satire, verbal sparring and gunfights are deftly combined in a excellently written novel permeated by Herron’s sly, dry and very English sense of humour—rather as if Philip Larkin or Alan Bennett had had a go at spy fiction.” Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

1. Tigers have been around for quite a while

Herron’s strength is in examining at close hand the absurdities, conflicts, and dangers of the intelligence agency as an institution at the center of some of the most central conflicts in the 21st century.” Kearney, meanwhile, has her hands full with the new home secretary, Peter Judd (a fantastic fictional creation that is so obviously meant to be Boris Johnson that Herron hasn’t so much nailed Johnson as crucified him to the wall), whose ambitions lie at 10 Downing Street and who knows having a tame director of MI5 will give him an edge. SO when they want to be heard, you’ll know about it, gang! 6) At full speed, tigers can reach up to 65km/h. I’ve taken the liberty.” Which sounded like a bullet-point summary of his Home Office tenure to date, but was in fact a reference to the tea tray on a nearby table. Sadly, hunting and habitat loss have put populations at risk, and today their range has been reduced to around 7% of its former size. That’s why we need to do all we can to protect these beautiful beasts!

These subspecies are the Bengal tiger, South China tiger, Indochinese tiger, Sumatran tiger and Amur tiger (also known as Siberian tiger). Sadly, three subspecies of tiger have become extinct – the Caspian, Bali and Javan. 10) Less than 100 years ago, tigers could be found throughout Asia. The abduction of one of their own rouses the members of MI5’s dead-end Slough House ( Dead Lions, 2013, etc.) to action once more.Fossil remains of tigers found in parts of China are believed to be 2 million years old. Yikes! 8) No two tigers have the same stripes. Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge are the odd couple, though they’re not even a couple. She was in comms at The Park before she laid out a co-worker, and also has addiction issues. He used to break down doors and carry a gun before his gambling problems compromised him. At heart, there is solid seriousness here as the new Home Secretary unleashes a tiger team (in which your own side tests you to the limit) to expose the weaknesses of British intelligence . . .Readers love this series for its breezy treatment of espionage in which you get to cheer for the underdogs while also showing respect for their opponents. Characters are drawn with the sharpest possible pen.”

The central conceit of the books is that MI5, like any large organisation, needs somewhere to place its most hopeless employees, and this place is Slough House, a building just around the corner from the Barbican Centre. They’re not allowed anywhere near MI5 HQ, which is referred to as Regent’s Park although the organisation is no longer based there. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Roddy Ho is the computer whiz, uber-geek and the butt of everyone’s jokes, not just Lamb’s. He’s ineffectual, arrogant and completely unaware of his failings. I’m not normally one for visual comedy, but Herron sets up some hilariously farcical scenes in this instalment. These laugh-out-loud moments deepen our connection/engagement with those relegated to Slough House, serving as digestives for the viciousness of both Lamb’s verbal assaults and the swift and violent ends those deemed dispensable meet.

Why all the food metaphors? No reason – there is minimal discussion of food in this novel, more of tea and alcohol. But what Real Tigers does have in spades is intrigue, suspense, humour and bite. The best Herron novel I’ve read yet. Spook Street is one of the darker novels and what little comic relief there is, is provided by Roddy Ho getting a girlfriend, a plot thread which is pulled in the follow up novel, London Rules. It also lays the ground for the events of Joe Country, and at the same time introduces a series villain, ex-CIA operative Frank Harkness. This novel is a series highlight for me, and went on to win the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award as well as being shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award, The British Book Awards and The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.