Real Tigers is the third of Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb novels, following on from Dead Lions.
Slough House is supposed to be a punishment for problematic MI5 agents who can’t easily be fired. These 'Slow Horses' are assembled from the incompetent, the inconvenient and the unreliable. The seemingly burnt-out Cold War veteran Jackson Lamb runs the department and is consistently horrible to his staff, ridiculing them as they work through a hundred different pointless tasks.
Slough House is not supposed to get involved in the real, important business of MI5. But by this point that rule's been broken more than once, each time with fatal consequences.
When one of the Slough House team is kidnapped and another receives an ultimatum from the kidnappers, things start to spiral into chaos once again.
Real Tigers contains examples of:
- Assassin Outclassin': After Lamb refuses to cooperate with the cover-up at the end of the book, Peter Judd decides to silence him and retrieve the evidence. Judd's usual killer, Seb, then sneaks into a darkened Slough House, follows the sound of Lamb's snoring - and finds Lamb waiting for him, gun in hand, fully awake. The Slow Horses are apparently tasked with disposing of Seb's body.
- Black Site: The secret prisons that are indirectly documented by the Project Waterproof files, which are at the heart of Judd and Taverner’s plan to oust Tearney.
- Continuity Nod: When Project Waterproof is discussed, there’s a brief mention of rumors that Tearney also had some people imprisoned in black sites for more personal reasons, abusing her power. This gets discussed in more detail in Nobody Walks.
- Corrupt Politician: Peter Judd, established in this role by previous books, is now Home Secretary and at the heart of the plot.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Sean Donovan to Sly Monteith. Monteith has no idea that Donovan is working with Taverner. Or that he created a vacancy by trying to kill his predecessor.
- Enemy Civil War: In other circumstances it might be Divided We Fall, as MI5 is not generally portrayed as a villainous organisation. But the feud and scheming is between Taverner and Tearney, who are both deeply unpleasant people, and both are entirely prepared to kill innocents to get the upper hand.
- Enemy Mine: Donovan and Traynor end up allying with some of the Slow Horses after Tearney sends Duffy and the Black Arrow mercenaries to kill everyone on the site.
- False Flag Operation: The kidnappers who seize Catherine Standish and demand River retrieves a file are a 'Tiger Team' testing MI5 security for the Home Secretary. Which doesn't mean that they don't have their own agenda, of course.
- Fictional Counterpart: "Fair Deal for Fathers" is essentially British fathers' rights organisation "Fathers 4 Justice", famed for their superhero costumed-stunts. The real Fathers 4 Justice get a Shout-Out later in the book, but aren't involved in the protest or attempted murder.
- Hostage For Macguffin: River is instructed to steal a file from the Park to ensure Catherine's continued safety.
- Internal Reveal: Catherine Standish finally discovers that her old boss Charles Partner was a Mole in Charge. But not the truth about his death.
- Leave No Witnesses: Tearney's order to Duffy when she realises how deep Taverner's scheme goes. Donovan, Traynor, the Slow Horses and the archive staff all need to be killed, to avoid any risk of Project Waterproof implicating her.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The car accident that killed Captain Dunn, arranged via sabotage and spiked drinks. Framing Donovan made it look more convincing.
- She Knows Too Much: Captain Dunn found out too much about Project Waterproof from a foreign contact, at which point certain people within MI5 panicked and arranged her murder.
- Shout-Out:
- MI5's document classification system is based on Thunderbirds. Some of the staff are amused by the thought that Dame Ingrid doesn't realise this (she does).
- 'Fathers 4 Justice', the British pressure group, gets a mention when their Fictional Counterpart 'Fair Deal for Fathers' is discussed.
- The two 'Fair Deal for Fathers' protesters in the opening scene are dressed as Spider-Man and Batman.
- The Starscream: Di Taverner, who’s scheming to remove Dame Ingrid Tearney as First Desk of MI5.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Catherine Standish quits after Lamb's revelation about her old boss Charles Partner.
- Uncertain Doom:
- 'Spider' Webb. It's suggested that Di Taverner may have arranged for his life support to be unplugged after River invents a story about Spider's wishes, claiming that he has no family to speak for him.
- Nick Duffy, who's initially left with "limited brain function" after River delivers a savage blow to his head.
