I’m a little disappointed in myself for how much time I put between Mick Herron’s debut Slough House novel Slow Horses and the next installment in the series, Dead Lions, but better late than never, I guess.
I believe a new season of the show is due out in September, and that had me thinking about how much I liked the show. And then I remembered how well the show followed the first book, so I thought why not just see how the rest of them stack up?! I will say, Herron’s Slough House series is hard to come by at my local library, but I’ve managed. In the second book, you don’t really need to know much of what went on in the first novel. Sid Baker’s name is practically a whisper, when all you really need to know now is that Shirley and Marcus have been brought in to fill her desk. The rest of the building’s inhabitants remain the same, and as ineffective as ever.
It’s not their fault though, as they are meant to basically be paper pushers or data farmers, so bored by the lack of action that they quit rather than being fired, as the service would prefer. Things only start to get a little interesting when Louisa and Min get approached by Spider to help be the “muscle” for a meeting with some high powered Russians. That ask wouldn’t have been any cause for concern, except that at the start of the novel, an old aquaintance of Jackson Lamb turns up dead on a bus. The Dogs at the Service declare it a heart attack, but Lamb finds it to be rather suspicious, especially since he uncovers a phone jammed in the bus cushions that contains a word used related to Russian sleeper cells. These sleepers were all but a rumor, but what if it turns out to actually be true?
Lamb sets the slow horses to work, or at least the ones not on Spiders detail, though things take a turn when Min gets struck and killed by a van. Also suspicious. With Marcus in his place, there are even fewer horses to help unravel the truth, but Ho and Catherine come to a conclusion the same time River does in his undercover position. It’s revealed that the sleepers are real and that there are bombs buried all over their town. Their leader, Katinsky, seeks revenge against Britain for the obliteration of his town back when he was young, though his antics also seem larger scale than they really are. Panic sets off in central London, with Spider’s meeting going sideways, as it was always obvious it would, but through it all the slow horses see some real action.
We only get to see a little bit of the impact Min’s death has on the team, but especially Louisa, who was dating Min at the time. Shirley didn’t get to do much, but I already like the bond she forms with Marcus. It’s unconventional and rough around the edges, but it’s clear that there is caring there. Lamb continues to be a marvelous character, who, for all of his flaws is an extremely intelligent man. And dexterous when he wants to be. I will admit that I’ve already picked up the next novel in the series, but with nine in total as of 2025, I’ve still got a ways to go. I don’t know if the TV series will make it to the end, but I at least have these books to finish the story out for me.