Dead Lions

Slough House is in the London Borough of Finsbury. The building is drab and damp. Inside, Roderick Ho sits alone in his office, behind a bank of computers. In another office, “two unfamiliar faces” reside (11). Elsewhere in Slough House, Min Harper and Louisa Guy share an office. River Cartwright has an office of his own. Above him, on the topmost floor, two offices belong to Catherine Standish and Jackson Lamb. The office of Jackson Lamb is a filthy mix of “takeaway food, illicit cigarettes, day-old farts and stale beer” (12).

Unlike most days, Jackson Lamb is not in his office. He is in Oxford, searching for information about Dickie Bow’s last bus journey. He travels to Reading and poses as Dickie’s academic brother. Lamb asks the bus station manager if he can sit on the bus where Dickie died, and then tries to remember what he knew about Dickie. The circumstances of Dickie’s death seemed strange to Lamb, prompting him to examine Dickie’s place of death. He finds Dickie’s cell phone and speaks to the driver, who mentions a hat that may now be in the lost property department. Lamb returns to Oxford and seeks out the lost property office. Lamb claims the black fedora from the bus and wonders why it might have been left behind. Next, he checks the phone: Neither of the numbers in the contacts results in anything. Lamb reads a draft message. The single word Cicadas shocks him.

In Slough House, the two new people look around. They know that Slough House is “openly acknowledged to be a dumping ground” (16), a place to send unwanted employees to encourage them to quit. Marcus Longridge is in his mid-forties, and Shirley Dander is in her mid-twenties. They each have a vague suspicion of what the other has done to deserve the ignominy of Slough House. If they are going to share an office, Marcus suggests, then they might pass the time better by talking. Quickly, the conversation turns to their indiscretions. Shirley punched an older colleague who was sexually harassing her. She was accused of having “issues” by the HR department, and so was sent to Slough House. Their conversation turns to the other occupants of Slough House, beginning with Lamb. Shirley is dismissive of Lamb, though Marcus suspects that he “knows where some bodies are buried” (25). They discuss the others. Ho is fiercely anti-social, while Min and Louisa seem to be in a sexual relationship. Catherine, Marcus believes, has an alcohol use disorder. Marcus knows that River was responsible for a calamity during a training exercise which caused a busy station to be shut down. He was sent to Slough House rather than fired because his grandfather was an important spy. Shirley claims that she was not fired because she told HR that she was a lesbian but declines to answer Marcus’s question about whether she is gay.

Min and Louisa take a walk through St. James’s Park. Lousia knows about a recent budgeting scandal in MI5 that could open the door to their rehabilitation at the service’s headquarters, Regent’s Park. Min suspects that the inquiry is making Lady Diana Taverner, the second desk of MI5, very angry. James Webb meets Min and Louisa, nicknamed Spider. Webb shares a secretive assignment, which may last three weeks. Ingrid Tearney, the head of Regent’s Park, is away, so Diana Taverner is in charge. Min and Louisa have a low opinion of Webb’s importance; he betrayed River, which caused River to be sent to Slough House. Webb explains that Min and Louisa will report to him, but the description of the vetting work seems more in line with the work normally assigned to Regent’s Park’s in-house “skeleton-rattling department,” known as the Dogs. Webb confesses that Regent’s Park is in a chaotic state, so he must rely on Slough House. A Russian delegation is coming to London, including a billionaire named Arkady Pashkin. Min and Louisa will need to vet his staff. Webb asks mockingly about River. Min dislikes Webb; though he has no real affection for River, he feels a sense of solidarity with his fellow slow horse. Taking a pink cardboard folder from Webb, Min and Louisa stroll around the park. Louisa thinks about their recent affair and the activity in Slough House, which makes her believe that “Jackson Lamb now [has] serious dope on Diana Taverner” (37). They watch a black swan on the lake. Louisa notes that such birds symbolize “a totally unexpected event with a big impact […] that seems predictable afterward, with the benefit of hindsight” (38).

Ho posts on social media under an assumed identity built from “links and screenshots” (43). In the office above, River reflects on the woman who once used the desk next to him. In recent months, River thinks, Lamb seemed briefly reinvigorated. River is performing “gruntwork” by examining old records in search of identity theft targets. River visits Catherine Standish. They discuss Lamb, whose recent activity seems very out of character. Ho may know what Lamb is doing, so they visit him. Ho dislikes River, but he is indifferent to Catherine. He refuses to divulge anything about his meeting with Lamb but, under some flattery, he agrees to tell Catherine, who reveals that Lamb was seeking a Service personnel file for Dickie Bow. The file is unremarkable, other than noting Dickie’s talent for following targets. When Lamb returns, River and Catherine ask Lamb about Dickie Bow. Lamb teases Catherine about her alcohol use disorder but cannot hide his surprise from her. Catherine presses Lamb about Dickie as Marcus enters with a folder for Catherine. Lamb dismisses them all. Then, a moment later, they hear Lamb accidentally smash his computer monitor and swear.

On the 77th floor of a London skyscraper, Min and Louisa study the view. They see an airplane in the distance. Since this is where the meeting will be held, they must study all possible threats. They both harbor “secret hopes” that they might be allowed back to Regent’s Park from Slough House. Privately, Louisa worries what might happen if only one of them were invited back to Regent’s Park. 

Later, all of Slough House gather in Ho’s office to watch a grainy CCTV video of Dickie’s last movements. They follow a bald, hatless man referred to as Mr. B as he boards a train after disembarking the replacement bus on which Dickie Bow died. Lamb orders Min to find more footage from other stations, and Min reveals that Webb has reassigned he and Louisa to “babysit […] a visiting Russian” (62). Though River puts himself forward for the assignment, Lamb gives it to Shirley. When they are alone in Ho’s office, River accuses Lamb of needing the slow horses. Lamb speaks about his suspicion that Dickie was killed by an “untraceable poison.”