Tags
Book Review, Espionage, Jackson Lamb series, Mick Herron, Real Tigers, Slough House Book 3, Spy thriller
A little more formulaic than the earlier outings
Being so entranced by Mick Herron’s Slough House series, which I discovered early this year, has had its down-side. Real Tigers, the third of (so far) 4, has been read pretty quickly after reading book 2, which was almost instantaneously dived into after finishing book 1.
Normally, readers will be waiting eagerly for the next to come out, and may well have forgotten an author’s tics or tricks. Not so, this way of reading.
The last time I was feverishly sucked into total immersion by an author, was by Irish writer, Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, a couple of years ago. I read all of French’s long books, – at that time, 5 of them within an intense 6 weeks. And I have to say that French survived this immersion fabulously, as I did not ever feel ‘oh, that routine again’
Where she scores and where Herron just misses, is that French does not stay with the same central cast of characters, who must either develop or recycle themselves into their own predictability. Using the Murder Squad as a pool, or chorus, each of her books features a couple of members of that squad taking a place in the spotlight. She might allow some of the detectives more than one outing, even more than one outing in some kind of central position, but her characters don’t outstay their welcome, and, anyway, are dynamic, shifting, developing.
Whilst Herron, in his wonderfully tense’second team’ espionage books, does keep some kind of unpredictable page turning going, the challenge is, his central players stay the same, and the most archetypal,verge-of-caricature ones, can begin to feel as if they are running through their own grooves, merely driving them a little more predictably. So, in Real Tigers, it is the grossly unregenerate Jackson Lamb – flatulent, autocratic, bullying and disgustingly grubby, who comes off the worst. By book 3, I was well aware that we were heading up to another fart gag, another description of Lamb’s far from fragrant aromatic ambience/ Likewise, sex-obsessed, but permanently sex-denied, geeky Roderick Ho continues to be a butt of some rather similar jokes and put downs.
I suspect I might have enjoyed Real Tigers rather more if I had read it at the time of publication, after waiting eagerly having finished book 2. Dead Lions, at its publication.
Nonetheless, Real Tigers, which has as its central motif the dark doings and power struggles within M15 itself, rather than the dangers posed by external villainry, was a still enjoyable and page turning divertissement, and Herron still gives lots of unpredictable excitement and surprises in the journey. But also, more clichés. There is a prolonged version of a Shoot-Out at the Okay Corral, and I did find it less than credible because I was always aware that I was reading that trope, which went on far too long.
As an aside, I continue to be quite amazed that (as far as I know) Herron has never been sued by the current denizen of the Foreign Office. Set after the 2015 election, but before the referendum, Peter Judd, (PJ) Home Secretary, a devious, bombastic, floppy haired egomaniac with manic ambition, ever prepared to plot and plan and shift with the wind in order to achieve his dream to become PM, is not so much a thinly disguised Boris Johnson, as one completely without disguise!
The most interesting character in this one, and one who has been developing across the books, is Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb’s PA.
I do recommend this – but also, recommend leaving decent gaps between the books!
Unfortunately though, this book follows reasonably hard on the heels of my last blog 
review, as though I have read several other titles in the last few weeks, not one of them was any better than ‘okay’ in my estimation, so have been un-reviewed here. The only one which will get blog space is so far in advance of publication that it will do the book no service to be blogged about for a couple of months. So its Herron and Herron!
Real Tigers Amazon UK
Real Tigers Amazon USA
Lady Fancifull 
Maybe he’s avoided being sued because BoJo would never recognise himself as a devious, bombastic, floppy haired egomaniac with manic ambition? Just a thought 😉
Ha ha! Well there’s a possible truth in that, though he eggs SO many parallels that I even found myself checking one likely sounding but curious fact (PJ, in Desert Island Discs, made every
chosen record be by Clash….R4 DID archives showed that not to be what Boris did. I was a bit disappointed..
I find there are very few series that stand up to total immersion. I was reading the latest Rankin last week – an author I love as you know – and the disloyal thought crossed my mind that the last three books have been basically the same. I still loved it because it’s more than a year since I read the last one and I desperately needed my Rebus fix, but if I’d read them all in a bunch I’m sure there would have been a little tooth-gnashing going on…
Indeedy. I only have one to go now, and then I’m done, there will be a wait for the next one, assuming there is one. I gather he has had more than one sequence of series. Ah well, even Shakespeare did it.. Henry IV Pt 1 and 2, and as for Dostoyevsky and those Karamazov Brothers…
Apparently there are more than 70 in the Maigret series… *faints*
I like the sound of the Tana French series – its a clever idea to bring different characters into the spotlight like that. I’ve not read a full series featuring one primary character – like the Rebus ones – but I can imagine they become rather ubiquitious after a time OR the author feels driven to introduce something rather unbelievable
Yes, I think French has been very canny in this way. Even where she re-introduces characters who have played a major part in a previous book, there are either some substantial changes which are absolutely believable, or you see them through a rather different lens, or they are passing through. It also gets her out of the bind of having to recap information for someone coming into the middle of the series, without prior exposure. It is therefore possible to be reading each as a stand-alone, AND to read sequentially
There’s a danger you can over-read a favourite author – I’ve done it myself then wished I’d left a gap. And with a series it can be hard to sustain the quality. Hope the next book is better for you!
Thanks, Karen. Like gorging on a favourite food!
I bloody adored Tana French’s books and read them exactly the same way as you did, one after the other, bam bam bam. And you’re right: you don’t feel you’re burning out on a formula because she changes her main character every time. The closest she gets is making Scorcher Kennedy a background character in one and a protagonist in another, and that just helped to round him out. I know she’s reusing Antoinette Cosway in The Trespasser, which I haven’t read yet—it’ll be interesting to see if it works. I’m pretty sure it will.
Re. Mick Herron, I’ve just bought Slow Horses, so am about to get started… But perhaps I’ll leave a couple of months in between installments?
I managed 1 and 2 of Herron pretty well, but book 3 (Real Tigers) would certainly have fared better with the gap. And Cosway DID work with The Trespasser, though I read it after too long and impatient a wait …I did my French immersion shortly after book 5 had been published, which was when I found her. So after the bam, bam, bam it was the impatience, along with the rest of her many fans
I’ve not long finished Slow Horses which I enjoyed – but even by the end of that initial book Jackson Lamb had begun to piss me off a bit! I’ve already bought the second book haven’t picked it up from the shop yet – now when I do I’ll give myself a bit longer before I go back to Slough House. For what it’s worth the character I was most intrigued by in Slow Horses was River’s grandfather – as I read those bits kept thinking there was an interesting book in his back story somewhere!
Now I may be wrong on this one, but I think granddad features as a main in book 4, from the blurb, so I think Herron knew that too!