Dead Lions

Written by Mick Herron

Narrated by Gerard Doyle

London’s Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their careers. The “Slow Horses,” as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op
badly, or got in the way of an ambitious colleague. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing these failed spies have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action.

Now the Slow Horses have a chance at redemption. An old Cold War–era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. As the agents dig in to their fallen comrade’s circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of
ancient Cold War secrets. How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705072516

Reviews for Dead Lions

[Tony Tang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vastly different from the typical spy thriller. Interesting, but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying. Feels a bit like a lot of interesting fuss about nothing important.

[runner56_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A boatload of burned out spies spend their twilight years in Sough House participating in deadend jobs until retirement. They are known affectionatley as Slow Horses. Their rather unothodox leader is Jackson Lamb, an overweight, chainsmoking, narcissistic misogynist who finds it amusing to pass wind in public. In a throwback to the cold war and possilbly in homage to George Smiley our assortement of oddballs seek out and destroy the threat of communists wherever these devious and cunning moles materialize. Some may enjoy Herron's humour and style of writing but personally I found it laborious.

[katevane · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another brilliant outing for the Slow Horses. This time the focus is on Russia, as the death of a Soviet-era spy and the visit of a Russian oligarch disturb the monotony of their days. Great characters, wonderful prose and a darkly humorous take on contemporary politics and culture.*I received a copy of Dead Lions from the publisher via Netgalley

[ericlee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The second of Mick Herron’s Jackson Lamb thrillers is as good as the first. But … you have to love the characters. Perhaps ‘love’ is the wrong way of putting it. They are, generally, not very nice people, Lamb in particular. They are constantly insulting each other, lying to each other, and working in the most dysfunctional organisation ever, which may well accurately describe the British intelligence services. But likeable they are not.They are, however, eminently watchable, and part of the pleasure of watching them is seeing the discarded, despised screw-ups of MI5 who have been exiled to Slough House in the end save the day (yet again).The story in this second volume is the weak part — it’s all rather implausible, as other reviewers have noted — but that’s not the point.If I want to read a plausible story about how Russian agents operate in the West, I’d read the Mueller Report.This is British espionage fiction in the best tradition not only of John le Carré but — dare I say it — of Ian Fleming as well.

[cathywoolbright · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The agents of Slough House have either resigned themselves to being here, and go about their tasks with the faint but ever burning hope that they are here in error, the mistake will be found and they will be snatched out of utter boredom any moment - thus they are mice on a treadmill going through the motions. Then there are the zealous agents, so sure they are here in error (the gambler, the inconvenient colleague, i.e.) that they are zealously, if subversevely, trying to prove their worthiness, no, their meritoriness. Thus, under secretive leadership ( semi) of the bumbling, crude and gross, Jackson Lamb, he of good instincts and an anything to get your man attitude, the Slough House agents set out to do just that.
In this sendup of British spy novels, not all is what it seems, but there is murder and mayhem, chases and romance, a hero and a Russian spy/villian. You do not have to read the prequel, Slow Horses, but some readers found the read confusing without a preliminary intro to the Slough House residents. I did not, but this is my cup of tea - a good British send up!

[brianewilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A terrific book - a great spy story. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second in the Slough House series and the disgraced MI5 agents, despite their stunning success in the last book, have not been allowed to return to Regent's Park and are still doing their mundane tasks. Then two of them are seconded by Webb (whom we already hate from the first book) and a former asset is found dead on a replacement bus service.I was disappointed in this novel, although possibly only in comparison with "Slow Horses" (and I'm still giving it 4 stars). Catherine and Ho were still enjoyably themselves, but we saw less of River, and it was hard to warm to Marcus and Shirley. Mostly though, I wanted Jackson Lamb to be as omniscient as last time and he just wasn't. The resolution to the mysteries was convoluted and deeply unlikely and relied on so many coincidences and deductive leaps that it was hard to keep up or to believe it while I was reading it. The humour was still there however and the description of the march/alert in the City at the end was well done. I'm hopeful for the third in this series, although I really need Webb to get his just deserts.

[hcnewton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.--- ...whatever we’re here for, Lamb's not being punished. Or if he is, he’s enjoying it.” “So what’s your point?” He said, “That he knows where some bodies are buried. Probably buried a few himself.” “Is that a metaphor?” "I failed English. Metaphor's a closed book to me.” “So you think he’s handy?” “Well, he’s overweight and drinks and smokes and I doubt he takes much exercise that doesn’t involve picking up a phone and calling out for a curry. But yeah, now you mention it, I think he’a handy.” “He might've been once,” Shirley said. “But there’s not much point in being handy if you're too slow to be any good at it.” But Marcus disagreed. Being handy was a state of mind. Lamb could wear you down just standing in front of you, and you wouldn't know he was a threat until he was walking away, and you were wondering who'd turned the lights out. Just Marcus’s opinion, of course. He'd been wrong before. “I suppose,” he said, “if we stick around long enough, we might find out.”SQUIRREL!I read the first book in this series over 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, my friend Paul has been hounding me, nagging me, and generally pushing me to keep reading them. Insisting that I'm missing out. Etc. Etc. Etc. While I suspected he was right—and even if he wasn't, I wanted to based on Slow Horses and everything I'd heard from Paul, Jeff at Barbican Station, and from several other fronts.But we all know how easily distracted I can be. So...here we are 45 months later. And I know when I post this I'm going to get at least one text from Paul, saying things like: "I told you so!" and "It's about time."I deserve both of those messages because he did tell me so; and yes, it is.WHAT'S DEAD LIONS ABOUT?Jackson Lamb gets suspicious when an old, low-ranking spy from the Cold War era dies on a public bus. He follows Dickie Bow's last movements and finds reason to indulge that hunch a little longer, bringing in one of Slough House's new additions to do some more legwork. What they find doesn't make him any happier—a bogey-man from the old days might be back. And that can't be good.Meanwhile, Spider—pardon me, James—Webb recruits Louisa Guy and Min Harper to help him with a little project he's got going on. He's trying to recruit a Russian oligarch—one with political aspirations—as an asset, and he needs some security work done by people who won't get the attention of any of the bigwigs in MI5. Neither wants to work with Webb, but if they do, there's a chance...not much of one...but a chance that at least one of them will be the first Slow Horse to move back to Regent's Park. Both of them are ready to be that one—even at the expense of the other, no matter what relationship might be budding between the two of them.BEST OF BOTH WORLDSWhile I have an appreciation for British Cold War Spy novels—they're really not my thing. I've tried, both in print and on film—and they just don't work. But that's the kind of world that River's grandfather, O.B., represents—and that Tavener and Lamb represent the end of. They have one foot in that world still, it defines them—but they're both (especially Tavener) also part of the War on Terror, financial crimes/terrorism, etc. of our current moment. River, Ho, and the rest of the Slow Horses belong to the latter.What this book does so well is to marry the two schools—we have a very Cold War holdover storyline, and a Putin-era storyline. Now, I can't imagine that Herron is going to be able to pull this off regularly, but getting to do it in the second novel, solidifying the series' identity as being able to work in both eras. I thought that was a great move that welcomes in fans of both eras of British Spy Fiction.SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT DEAD LIONS?So, back in 2019 when I read Slow Horses, I liked it and was impressed by it, but I only gave it 3 Stars. When I listened to the audiobook last year, I think I "got" what Herron was doing a little more. But I still wasn't as impressed with this as everyone I knew seemed to be. I'm fine with that, but I wondered a bit if I was missing something.I think I found whatever it was in the pages of Dead Lions. Because...wow. Herron does it all here—there's some satire, there's commentary on human existence, on the politics (and espionage) of the Cold War, on the politics (and espionage) of the 2000s, a real and slowly-building tension, there's subtle wit, less-than-subtle wit, a plot that is impossible to predict, characters that are the most human you'll find in spy fiction, dialogue and narration that are impossible not to endlessly quote...and fart jokes.One lesson that readers of the first book should've picked up is that they shouldn't get attached to anyone—look at the number of people assigned to Slough House at the beginning of the book and then at the end. Percentage-wise, it's safer to be a George R.R. Martin character. Herron ensures that no reader of Dead Lions thinks that's a fluke. Right now (and I'm ready to be disproven), I figure the only safe characters are Jackson Lamb and (sadly) James Webb—he seems to have the survival capabilities of a hardy cockroach.Herron surprised me on multiple occasions—I think at this point, I'm going to just permanently suspend my reflex to predict what's coming when I spend time with him. They weren't just surprises—they were the kind that I absolutely didn't even think of expecting—and then in retrospect, I don't know how I could've imagined anything else happening at all.From time to time, TV Critic Alan Sepinwall will recap an episode saying things like "if we only got X, that would be enough. If we only got Y, that would be enough," and so on. I felt like that while thinking about this book. If we only got Lamb tracking the final movements of Dickie Bow, that would've been enough. If we only got the Louisa Guy/Min Harper storyline, that would've been enough. If we only got the Diana Tavener/Jason Webb scene, that would've been enough. If we only got River Cartwright going undercover, and everything he goes through...you see where I'm going. Any one of those would've been enough for me to realize I need to take this series seriously and get on with reading them all. You combine these points with all those that I decided not to list for space/spoiler reasons? I'm on the verge of being rabid.Everything I thought was a bug about Slow Horses was a feature, and I see that now. Everything I thought was a fluke about Slow Horses wasn't. Everything I thought was good about Slow Horses was at least a little bit great. How do I know that? I see all of those elements here and have a much better appreciation for them in Dead Lions so I can better understand its predecessor.I had other things in my notes that I really wanted to cover. But...I've said the essentials, and am at the point where I'm trying to gild an already gilded lily. So, I'm going to leave all that unsaid. Yes, I may have overhyped this and doomed you to not appreciate it. I get that and apologize in advance. Just chalk this up to a new and rabid fanboy—go into this series expecting something good. And then when you're ready to join the rabid throng, I'll be waiting for you.And now, I've got to start waiting for messages from Paul.

[ronrose1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very entertaining suspense story. Set in London, the action centers around a branch office of MI5, British Intelligence. On this branch, most of the leaves are withering or malformed. This is where MI5 sends it's castoffs and screwups hoping they will quit the service or slowly rot away. The small department is full of quirky characters. Chief among them is Jackson Lamb, perhaps the quirkiest of the sorry lot. Lamb, however, does remember the old days of the Cold War when real spies faced off against each other. When a former low level British spy turns up dead on a bus, Lamb refuses to believe it is due to natural causes. Is he just trying to shake off the dust of years of inactivity or is there perhaps some justification for his belief that the Russians are up to no good? The story is full of red herrings along with a great cast of characters who are more or less interested in chasing them down. A follow up book certainly would be on my reading list. Book provided for review by the well read folks at Soho Press.

[diovival · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun romp. Yet again I dive feet first into a book and then later discover it's part of a series I've never read. Gah! I would recommend reading this series in order. I didn't feel completely lost but it did feel like I was missing a piece of the puzzle at the start. Still, this was entertaining enough that I feel compelled to go back and read the first book.

I received this book for free via the Goodreads giveaway program.

[susanamper · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Cold War is still alive and kicking in the 21st century in the novel set in Britain. Washed up MI5 spies are sent to some backwater location in hopes they will become bored enough to quit.Way too many names to keep track of, and the story pretty much adds up to a 0.

[ken5me5old5mate · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This review is repeated for all the books in the Slough House series:
Slow Horses
Dead Lions
The List
Real Tigers
Spook Street
London Rules

I’m on holiday in Australia and like all good holidays I came with a pile of books. Also like all good holidays, the books are pure escapism writing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t finish it, missing a page or two will not spoil the plot, not remembering a word of it the next day? well that marks it as a really good holiday read.

I devoured this series, one every two days and loved every minute of them all. haven’t found the last one yet but ave got all the ones that came before including the novella, The List. You could pick any one of them up and read it and it wouldn’t matter if you hadn’t read the preceding ones, they all work individually but just like soup, steak and syrup pudding they work best in the right order.

The setting is a dingy, run down building in a dingy, run down part of London. It is called Slough House and the people in there are referred to as Slow Horses. They are all members of the Secret Service who have fucked up one way or another and are no longer suitable for active service, but cannot be sacked without falling foul of the Employment Act, yes it even applies to spies.

So they are banished to Slough House and given menial, mind numbing repetitive, pointless, soul destroying, work to do until they eventually give up and leave. Except, some of them don’t leave. Everyone pretty much knows exactly how everyone else fucked up big time to be in Slough House except for their boss, one Jackson Lamb, no-one knows how he ended up here or even suspects that he bargained his place here in exchange for doing a nasty job that was necessary at the time. He could best be described as cunning, nasty, abrasive, insulting, crude, ill-mannered and very politically incorrect, except that he spent the majority of his time in the service behind the wall working undercover in Soviet, Cold War territory, something that very few came back from alive.

The books are a series of events that befall the occupants of Slough House. You soon get a feel for the characters and the James Bond meets Coronation Street situation. But them some of them die and some of them don’t. From book to book you never know who will be around at the end of the book. The characters of Jackson Lamb had me laughing out loud on many occasions, making me realise how seldom this happens!

The real enemies are seen mainly to be those within the Secret Service and their political masters and the ends they will go to secure what they see as their rightful place in history. Right and Wrong are easily mistaken for each other and beyond a certain point it depends where you stand as to what you call which. The guns are seldom in the right hands and the good guys quite often don’t make it.

The incidental characters are easily seen for the current political muppets they are based upon, a particularly evil Boris Johnson is never far from the plot. Also current events, Brexit and so on. In discussing the seemingly unbelievable factors in the current case it only takes Jackson Lamb to point out that Tony Blair is now a Peace Envoy for everyone to grasp that nothing can be dismissed as highly unlikely.

If this ever gets turned into a Netflix series I will buy a television just to watch it!

[doondeck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another good read. Really gets the characters right.

[maneekuhi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am a big fan of spy novels, dating back to the mid-60's when I discovered Geoge Smiley. And "Dead Lions" had been recently announced as the winner of a Dagger. And the plot summary seemed very interesting. So this seemed like a "can't miss". But it isn't....it missed in a big way. Back to the plot summary. This is a story about slow horses, which by the way is the title of author Herron's previous book in this series. Slow horses is a sobriquet for MI5 agents who have messed up in a big way, causing irreparable harm to their careers. They are assigned menial tasks in the hope that they will retire gracefully and quickly. But their leader becomes involved in the recent death of a former associate in what he senses are suspicious circimstances. At this point we are gradually introduced to the team. The dialogue is crisp and witty, the characters are interesting and seem to dovetail with each other, and then the plot gets as foggy as a winter London night. It involves Russians, an agent seemingly created years ago only on paper to confuse the Brits, possible sleeper agents, a Russian oil magnate looking to make a deal, an unfolding plot reminiscent of 9/11, and some other nonsense. But nothing is clear, even as we near the climax. Connections of plot detail are made gradually by the team, but not by this reader, at least not concurrently. When it was all over I came away thinking "what was that all about?", and my very disappointing answer is not much. A shame, this could have been a winner.

[datrappert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another enjoyable but overlong story of the Slow Horses, heavy on characterization, less so on believable plot.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great fun.

[dokfintong · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Didn't care for the ending but otherwise the story was super.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fine spy thriller with the interesting quirk that the heroes have allbeen transferred to the administrative boondocks for perceived cock-ups. But they rise and fight to win the day, and have their victories awarded to others.Second in a series. I'll be back for later volumes.

[ameise1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the second volume in the Slough House series. It grabbed me from the start.There are two new members at Slough House who also share an office. They don't trust each other, but the other members don't trust the new ones either. A former agent is found dead on a bus. Jackson Lamb does not believe in natural death and sends two of his agents out to investigate. It soon turns out that the connection must be related to the Cold War and should be reactivated after so many years of 'sleeper'.At the same time, two other Slough House members are seconded by an avid MI5 agent to babysit a Russian oligarch. One is murdered and the other is out for revenge.It was again exciting from the first to the last page. You get to know the 'hard' core of the Slough House better and better.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like this series. It doesn't hurt that Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb in the Appletv series. He is perfect in the role. This group of MI-5 screw-ups once again run a marvelous op! I will eagerly continue with these hilariously serious tales!

[malcrf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just as good as Slow Horses. Great characters, page-turning prose, fascinating plot, can't wait for the next one!

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This read like a classic cold war tale of the LeCarre or MacInnes era. Jackson Lamb (mildly reminiscent of another outcast detective, Carl Morck) heads up an outpost for MI5 that is made up of misfits, placed there for various goofs in their earlier postings. When the death of an old, low-level spook captures Lamb's interest, the book takes off all over England, chasing down leads and red herrings to the finale. It took a while to settle in to the choppy and constant changes between people, but all in all, a read I think even my dad would have ok'd.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A second super entry in the series. There's plenty of action but plenty of working through the problem also. Not sure that every emotional beat is wholly earned, but it rattles along so pleasingly that it's hard to quibble. I'd like to see the slow horses function more as an actual team in the future, but I'll be back regardless.

[abbottthomas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm warming to Slough House. I think the first book was rather better than this, if only because of one or two very implausible plot lines in Dead Lions, but the characters work and action scenes are well written. I will continue the series.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jackson Lamb is back, just as grotesque, crass and generally objectionable as he was in Slow Horses, the first volume in this hugely enjoyable series. He is still presiding over Slough House, the bin end of internal exile to which compromised or incompetent MI5 agents, disdainfully referred to as the ‘slow horses’, are consigned. On a wet night in Oxford, during an episode of total chaos on the national rail network, a former dogsbody of the Service from Cold War days, of even lower status than the slow horses under Lamb’s tutelage, is found dead on a replacement bus service. Though never previously noted for his interest in, or even acknowledgement of, junior colleagues, Lamb is intrigued by this death, convinced that there is more to it than meets the eye. He evens deigns to send some of the slow horses to look into the death further. Meanwhile, one of the young hopefuls back at Regent Park, operational head office of the Service, is engaged in buttering up the latest Russian oligarch, helping him to host a business summit in a towering building clearly meant to be The Shard.Herron is adroit at entwining several different stories, weaving them into a compelling and engrossing novel. His characterisation is also impeccable, rendering a host of entirely plausible and largely empathetic characters, each with their own idiosyncrasies. He is also adept at misdirection, constantly selling the reader the dummy and leading him up any number of blind alleys. His plots are as sturdy and watertight as John le Carre’s, though they are sprinkled with a grim gallows humour. Jackson Lamb is as dishevelled as George Smiley yet also as coarse as Reginald Hill’s Superintendent Dalziel – a heady mix indeed.