This is another by Mick Herron. Published in 2013, it's the second in the "Slough House" series (following on from Slow Horses, published in 2010).

I listened to the audio-version this time, which was brilliantly narrated by Sean Barrett. I wondered whether Herron's quick scene changes would be difficult to follow aurally, but they're really not. There are plenty of clues to keep you up with the action, and the dialogue-driven text really lends itself to listening.

As we learnt from the first volume, the slow horses of the Slough House team are all MI5 screw-ups. They're there because it's easier to park them (and hope they'll move on) than fire them. At their head is the impossible Jackson Lamb. He's the kind of guy you'd hate -- really HATE -- to work for (he's grumpy, slovenly, and totally insensitive), but very much enjoy having around in a novel (he's smart, tenacious, and far better at the big picture than most of his bosses).

Herron's characters are all interesting, and we get a couple of new team-members in this volume. Not that you're ever sure how long Herron will let them stick around... He's a pretty merciless author, and a character we knew from the last volume ends up murdered by the baddies in this story...

It's definitely suspenseful, this book. Herron is great at leading you up blind alleys, and abandoning you just as something terrible is about to happen. I guess that's all pretty formulaic stuff, but he does it very entertainingly.

Add to the mix an acerbic brand of humour and a cynical view of modern Britain, and you've got a very enjoyable piece of work.



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But what specifically -- without giving away too many clues -- is interesting about this one?

I think, firstly, like this blogger, that it's the blend of old-school and contemporary spy themes. Several characters have Cold War form (within or connected to the team, for example, there's Lamb; the complex Catherine Standish; and River Cartwright's grandfather; outside the team, meanwhile, we have "Dickie Bow", the initial victim; and Nikolai Katinsky, the front man for a down-at-heel language school when we first meet him, but increasingly revealed as a man of many faces. Many of the other MI5 operatives (including most of those at Slough House) are more at home dealing with the "War on Terror", or transnational crime. In Dead Lions, we have both angles: Firstly, a plot that seems to involve a ghost from the past, inhabiting a complex web of invention and counter-invention; and secondly, a Russian oligarch, complete with guns, goons, and a pronounced ability to pull the wool over people's eyes.

It's an impressive meld. And it reflects, of course, the two tool-boxes that Vladimir Putin wields with so much malevolent mastery (see, for example, The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli).

The other intriguing thing, secondly, is the idea of "cicadas". They're agents who are buried in communities, with convincing aliases and backstories, ready to act when called into life. (They're the "dead lions" of the title: This is apparently the name of a children's game in which the players lie doggo while their adversary attempts to goad them into some kind of reaction -- the last person to stay quiescent wins.)

Of course, this is reminiscent of the KGB's extensive programme of "illegals". Quoting a new book by Shaun Walker, Alexander Howard explains that these agents "operated off the grid. They crept silently into Western countries under false identities, often stolen from the dead." While various intelligence agencies had deployed operatives posing as nationals of their host country, it was "never with the scope or scale of the KGB programme". Most of these agents were sleepers, "blending quietly into Western cities and suburbs, awaiting a call to action that, in many cases, never came".


In a dramatic acceleration of the action, River Cartwright is dispatched to scope out a Cotswold village (this one is Bibury)

That most of us have probably heard of these illegals is probaby due to the TV series called The Americans. Starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, it ran to great acclaim for six seasons (from 2013 to 2018). And it was based in part on the true story of a Russian couple who had spent 20 years passing themselves off as Canadians.

On the "how true is the series?" question, answers range from not bad through a little exaggerated to way OTT. One of the real spies on which the series was based, however, also says the show looks pretty much like reality -- but of course without the murders and the wigs. (And, for a first-hand account, read Elena Vavilova's account.)

Herron's dead lions were not foreigners, but rather Brits who'd been "turned". And, after many years playing dead, they're not all amenable to being brought to life when the time comes (this is the "becoming the mask" trope).

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At the end of the day, this is a revenge story. Could anyone keep in the air the number of balls needed for the very long game this vengeance involves? That's a matter for discussion.

But it's a good story. The proof of the pudding is that I've just ordered the third in the series in the Two-for-One sale...