"Dead Lions" by Mick Herron

Note: This review contains light spoilers for Slow Horses by Mick Herron.

Dickie Bow, a washed-up MI5 agent from the Cold War, might have been one of the Slow Horses if it weren't for the fact that he died on a bus. The circumstances seem natural enough: Bow was an alcoholic and it's natural for someone dealing with substance abuse to die of heart failure. But Jackson Lamb is a skeptic when it comes to the death of field agents; even low-grade ones like Bow deserve to have someone investigate when they die, just to make sure there aren't any monsters lurking in the shadows. However, when Lamb uncovers an unlikely connection to the Cicada network in the process, he and the slow horses of Slough House are forced to intervene unofficially to prevent an even bigger mess for Regents Park.

Dead Lions by Mick Herron is the second installment of the Slough House series, and offers a solid continuation of the series in terms of style and content. The novel focuses a little more heavily on Jackson Lamb’s character than the previous one, and that affords the reader a better opportunity to understand why Lamb is the way he is within the context of the larger narrative. At times in Slow Horses, Lamb seemed to have little else to him than a vague sense of menace, concern for his wards, and a bit of comic relief, but Dead Lions gets at why he’s as jaded as he is and how much he cares about the code between spooks. The reader learns that, while Lamb may not be a softy on the inside, he isn’t devoid of the human emotions that characterize everyone’s need for connection and their desire to be seen.

For readers, Dead Lions provides more of the espionage and action that was apparent in Slow Horses, but it delves a little more into the humor and irony of the profession than the first book did. In some respects, the novel points to the way truth is often a matter of action more than intent; spy networks, storytelling, and time all have a way of warping our understanding of what’s going on, and may question the foundations of what truth consists of. It’s a canny portrayal of unreliable narrators when the main characters aren’t actually pretending to be anything other than they are, and readers who are attracted to stories that explore ideas like these would likely have a blast with Herron’s book.

For writers, Dead Lions showcases how to expand on a character’s back story without having to double back or slow the pace of the story. Lamb’s character served a useful purpose in Slow Horses, but Herron’s approach to fleshing him out offers additional opportunities to add depth and heft to a character that, though never fully two-dimensional, wasn’t explored as fully in the first book as one might have hoped. It also establishes a jumping-off point for later books, which could add a useful skill to the toolbox of any writer looking to create a series.

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