Real Tigers
by Mick Herron
Pub Date: Oct 2016

Normally I give a book 50 pages to make an impact – otherwise terminate! I was about to ditch this book but was intrigued by the characters. The characters make up a dysfunctional team in UK security forces.

It seems the task force is inhabited with people with personality flaws or performance failings. They are lead by Jackson Lamb whose man-management belies belief and breaks every rule in the book. Middle management is vying for position and they report to a Home Secretary who has political ambitions too.

The dialogue is funny, caustic and keeps the viewer’s attention. The political intrigue is disturbing – I must remind myself of this fiction!

However implausible the plot the story ticks over leading to an action-packed finale.

The jury is out on these Mick Herron novels.

More about Mick Herron

Mick Herron‘s Slough House novels have been shortlisted for CWA Daggers,  and shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while the most recent, Joe Country, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller.

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.