Dead Lions

The bestselling thrillers that inspired the hit Apple TV+ show Slow Horses (Slough House Thriller 2)

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*

'The new king of the spy thriller' Mail on Sunday

'Mick Herron is an incredible writer' Mark Billingham

****

From the Intelligence Service purgatory that is Slough House, where disgraced spies are sent to see out the dregs of their careers, Jackson Lamb is on his way to Oxford, where a former spook has turned up dead on a bus. Dickie Bow was a talented streetwalker once, good at following people and bringing home their secrets. He was in Berlin with Lamb, back in the day. But he's not an obvious target for assassination in the here and now.

On Dickie's phone Lamb finds the last message he ever left, which hints that an old-time Moscow-style op is being run in the Intelligence Service's back-yard. Once a spook, always a spook, and even being dead doesn't mean you can't uncover secrets.

Dickie Bow might have tailed his last target, but Lamb and his crew of no-hopers are about to go live.

'The spycraft of le Carré refracted through the blackly comic vision of Joseph Heller's Catch-22' Financial Times

Critic reviews

Praise for Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb series:

The finest new crime series this Millennium

Mick Herron is the real deal

I can't wait to read what Mick Herron writes next

Surely among the finest British spy fiction of the past 20 years

Herron has the comedy and eye to rival Len Deighton

Herron may be the most literate, and slyest, thriller writer in English today

Delightful ... with a dry humour reminiscent of Greene and Waugh

The Slow Horses ride again!

I re-listened to this immediately after watching the new TV treatment of it (desperately disappointing casting in season 2 after the excellent work in all respects of bringing book 1 to the screen).

The original story here (if you’ve watched TV first) is far tighter, the Slow Horses far more an ensemble group (all are living breathing highly individual characters, each flawed in a different style, with unique implications). The story while superficially similar is different enough from the teleplay to be worth experiencing both. For my money, though, the highlight has got to be Molly Doran (a long running character) to whom absolutely no justice was done on the screen and Shirley Dander who the tv turned from “all the sex appeal of a traffic bollard” into a 21st century americanised (boring and entirely unbelievable) ideal of a pretty but kick-ass girlie heroine (take liberties with the stories, guys, but leave my favourite characters alone!!!)

So, whether you’ve seen the show first or not, listen to the book - the Sean Barrett reading if you have a choice - you’ll meet new friends and have a great time.

Another very enjoyable listen.

"What this place needs is a cat"

Can't recommend this series enough. the Characters are so 3 dimensional and Sean Barrett handles them all in style.

Brilliant mick heron

One of the sharpest, wittiest writers of spy thrillers. Dead lions continues the Slow Horses series in brilliant style, with anti-hero MI5 spook Jackson Lamb running his bunch of weirdos and wash-ups who find themselves in compromised situations, either of their own making or because of their position as has-beens, copping the blame for others’ cock-ups.

Great!

Every moment a joy. Buy it. I loved it. If you love intelligent, sharp, original, dark, witty thrillers

Absolutely superb

Brilliant book. Brilliant narration. Buy it. Don't look back, you'll love it if you love intelligent, sharp, original, dark, witty thrillers