A worthy follow-up to Slow Horses. Great characters, great dialogue, and a plot that keeps you guessing.

A good spy story. A few new characters, a lot like the ones from the first book in the series: misfits now in Slough House. Their depth as characters focused exclusively on their lives as spies. Several story threads pulled together at the end, a bit too quickly but fortunately nothing springing up at the end that comes out of the blue. I could not figure out whether the Russian spies in the English village actually knew the others were also spies, nor why they all ignored their orders to plant a bomb in the village.

Loved the first book and got a bit bored with the second. Glad to see someone die, especially Spider, but don’t over complicate it. Simple and tied in several knots. More smiley than g smiley please. And thanks for writing.

The characters, the dialog, the plot all are outstanding. Will be reading the entire series.

Herron’s gift for character creates people we care about, even giving us reason to love Lady Di in this one. But the convoluted plot and improbable story beats make this outing one of diminishing returns.

Having read Slow Horses and now Dead Lions, Mick Herron is my new favorite author. His characters come alive and I’m engrossed in the story.