Pricing
Paperback $16.95
More books by Mick Herron
Description
The CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning British espionage novel about disgraced MI5 agents who inadvertently uncover a deadly Cold War-era legacy of sleeper cells and mythic super spies.
The disgruntled agents of Slough House, the MI5 branch where washed-up spies are sent to finish their failed careers on desk duty, are called into ...
The CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning British espionage novel about disgraced MI5 agents who inadvertently uncover a deadly Cold War-era legacy of sleeper cells and mythic super spies.
The disgruntled agents of Slough House, the MI5 branch where washed-up spies are sent to finish their failed careers on desk duty, are called into action to protect a visiting Russian oligarch whom MI5 hopes to recruit to British intelligence. While two agents are dispatched on that babysitting job, though, an old Cold War-era spy named Dickie Bow is found dead, ostensibly of a heart attack, on a bus outside of Oxford, far from his usual haunts.
But the head of Slough House, the irascible Jackson Lamb, is convinced Dickie Bow was murdered. As the agents dig into their fallen comrade’s circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets that seem to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, who is either a Soviet bogeyman or the most dangerous man in the world. How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?
Media
“[Herron is the] le Carré of the future ... the characters are brilliant.”
–Patrick Neale on BBC's The Oxford Book Club
“A tale of secrets which refuse to die in the shady world of Cold War spooks ...”
Dead Lions, Winner of the 2013 CWA Gold Dagger Award
“A BBC Front Row Best Crime Novel of 2013”
—BBC
“Funny, clever ... Genuinely thrilling. The novel is equally noteworthy for its often lyrical prose. ”
─Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
“If you like your suspense novels told with a smart dash of wit and sarcasm, filled with lots of twists and turns, Herron's your man. ”
─Shelf Awareness
“[DEAD LIONS] features some of the twistiest plotlines in crime fiction...[and] is beautifully written but also elegantly structured ... Ever since finishing Slow Horses, I've been waiting for a possible sequel. Now that it's here, I have the pleasure of experiencing it, along with the pang of having finished it. ”
─International Noir Fiction
“Herron provides a dour, twisty spy thriller with something for everyone: part post–Cold War miasma, part James Bond heroics, and elliptical withal. ”
─Kirkus Reviews
“A surreal, cynical, yet amusing look at the world of British intelligence.... a looking-glass world that features KGB undercover agents, a Russian oligarch, a text message on a mobile phone and the ghost of a fabled Soviet spymaster who may not be real... an amusing, serpentine plot that takes readers as far from the glamorous world of Ian Fleming’s tuxedo-wearing spy as could be imagined.”