Real Tigers By Mick Herron

Herron's Slough House novels are the finest new crime series this Millennium . . . Funny and thrilling in equal measure, Real Tigers is an absolute joy
Mail on Sunday

Satire, verbal sparring and gunfights are deftly combined in an excellently written novel permeated by Herron's sly, dry and very English sense of humour – rather as if Philip Larkin or Alan Bennett had had a go at spy fiction
Sunday Times

Real Tigers has revitalised the spy thriller genre
Sunday Express

In the grand tradition of British espionage writing: no 007-style mayhem, but a narrative involving rogue agents and a kidnapped spy that is both sardonically funny and pleasingly complex
Independent

A pulsating spy thriller
Daily Express

The great spy novelists – Ambler, Greene, le Carr�, Deighton – pull off the difficult double act of showing that the business of espionage is simultaneously deadly serious and highly risible: office politics on a grand scale. These writers, without downplaying the dangers of spying, refuse to take the spies as seriously as they take themselves. They have a kindred spirit in Mick Herron . . . There is a near-constant stream of crackling, scabrous dialogue . . . Herron's casual observations are beautifully phrased . . . With his poet's eye for detail, his comic timing and relish for violence, Herron fills a gap that has been yawning ever since Len Deighton retired
Daily Telegraph

A masterful third spy novel from the gifted Herron . . . He has been published only by an American firm until now, in spite of the fact that he is British and his stories are set in this country. Now, all three books appear here, and Herron will, at last, receive the recognition that his talent richly deserves . . . Deliciously tongue-in-cheek and with a striking serpentine construction, it is a thriller that moves Herron close to the class of Graham Greene
Daily Mail

The Slough House series of which Real Tigers is the third instalment, is surely among the finest British spy fiction of the past 20 years. Where Mick Herron's contemporaries stumble through thickets of clich�, his fiction feels fresh and real . . . a narrative of breathtaking ingenuity. Brilliant
Metro

Herron, like all good novelists, manufactures his own form of reality and persuades his readers to subscribe to it. The satire is streaked with violence, which itself has elements of visual comedy. The dialogue is sharp and the prose is dark and sardonic. Underlying everything is a sense of outrage about the corruption within the Establishment. This is not the sort of novel where you're likely to find positive portraits of Old Etonians. But if you read one spy novel this year, read Real Tigers. Better still, read the whole series
The Spectator

All the action you might want from an espionage thriller is to be found in Real Tigers, with betrayal, double-dealing and a fantastically violent climax in an underground facility but the true pleasures of Mick Herron's Gold Dagger-winning Slough House series lie elsewhere: in the sharp wit and dry irony and elegant grace of the prose, the razor-sharp characterisation; and above all, the authorial overview: sophisticated and intelligent, satirical but never tipping into pastiche . . . Think Le Carr� with fewer posh people and laugh-out-loud funny. Mick Herron is the real deal
Irish Times

This third Slough House novel proves Herron has the comedy and eye to rival Len Deighton

Sunday Telegraph

What a find! It is the third in a series of witty, cynical and immensely original books . . . The story, though good is not the main reason to read this book. Rather, it is its elegant style, original viewpoint, dry wit and spring-to-life characters, some recognisable. I think Herron's is the next big name in crime fiction
Literary Review