2 October 2026
Last night I finished reading Dead Lions by Mick Herron, the second book in the Slow Horses series. If you’re not familiar with it, the Slow Horses are a ragtag group of MI5 agents who’ve fallen from grace and been exiled to a rundown satellite office in London known—none too affectionately—as Slough House. Their reasons for ending up there vary: maybe they botched an operation, drank too much, gambled too much, or simply got in the way of someone else’s ambition.
Slough House is run by Jackson Lamb, an old Cold War spy whose appearance and demeanor resemble a homeless derelict far more than a senior MI5 officer. Despite the filth, the slouching, and the constant cloud of cigarette smoke, Lamb is razor‑sharp—still deadly in operations and even more dangerous in the internal politics of MI5. His stated mission is to keep his misfits buried in meaningless work and out of trouble, but somehow the Slow Horses always end up entangled in real operations, usually solving problems the so‑called elite of MI5 can’t crack.
Apple TV has adapted much of the series, and I’ve watched it. The show is up through books five or six, with each season covering a different novel. I watched the TV version of Dead Lions before reading the book, and while the overall plot is the same, the path it takes is surprisingly different. In fact, I was struck by just how much the details diverge. So even if you’ve already watched Dead Lions on Apple TV, the book is absolutely worth picking up.
“All warfare is based on deception.” — Sun Tzu
“In our profession, there are no friends – only assets and liabilities.” — Control, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
“The cost of being wrong is catastrophic.” - unknown
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