Dead Lions

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-12

Part 2, Chapters 13-17

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Slough House

Slough House is the headquarters of the so-called slow horses. The rundown, mold-coated building is described in meticulous detail in every scene. Everything is old, nothing quite works, and even the modern computer equipment of Roderick Ho is set to pre-programmed busywork while he goes about more nefarious tasks, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and crumpled cans of energy drink. The building smells of rot and decay, as well as Jackson Lamb’s many odors. In this way, Slough House represents Britain and Bureaucratic Decay. This may not be the cutting edge of the world of British intelligence, but the novel’s decision to focus on Slough House elevates the building into a representation of a certain sense of Britishness suited to the time and place.

The decay of Slough House is contrasted with the modern cleanness of places like Regent’s Park and the Needle. Regent’s Park is the headquarters of MI5, the place where everyone in Slough House wishes they were. Yet the novel portrays Regent’s Park as a hive of backstabbing and treachery. The building itself may be clean and modern, but no one is happy. Everyone is self-interested and duplicitous. The modernity of Regent’s Park contrasts with the decay of Slough House but serves only to mask the same rot that affects Slough House. Regent’s Park does not achieve anything Slough House does not, but the inhabitants at least occupy a nice building. Similarly, the Needle is the latest and greatest skyscraper in London. It has reshaped the city’s skyline. Yet it is a playground for foreign investment. It may be modern, it may look good, it may contrast with the horribleness of Slough House, yet it symbolizes the extent to which any idea of British identity has been washed away by foreign investment. There is nothing British about the Needle. While Slough House may be a symbol of a decaying Britain, it is at least honest.

This symbolism is not lost on the inhabitants of Slough House. They know that they have been demoted. They know that the awfulness of Slough House is deliberately maintained to encourage them to quit their jobs. They want to escape, to go back to Regent’s Park, and to be reintegrated into the intelligence world that has cast them aside. For people like River, Shirley, Marcus, Min, and Louisa, the enduring hope of leaving Slough House represents a form of misplaced optimism that is endemic to the slow horses. As much as they hate Slough House, as much as they recognize it as a punishment, and as much as they know that no one ever returns to Regent’s Park, they continue to believe that they might escape one day. To them, Slough House is a symbol of defiant optimism. Even at their lowest point, they can cast aside their better judgment and believe that—somehow—they will be able to return to Regent’s Park. Slough House becomes a symbol of this enduring hope, of the ability of intelligent people to overlook everything they know out of sheer brute force optimism.

The slow horses inside Slough House may resent their situation. They may yearn to return to the modern environment of Regent’s Park, yet their shared strife unites them to be an effective team. Unlikely partnerships emerge between Catherine and Ho, for example, which demonstrate how this common suffering brings different people together. Through their effectiveness, both in Dead Lions and Slow Horses, the people of Slough House show unity and a determination that is missing from Regent’s Park. As such, Slough House becomes a symbol of how common suffering can breed teamwork. Their alienation, ironically, brings them together. The building represents a form of unity which is impossible for Regent’s Park.

Black Swans and White Whales

Dead Lions is split into two parts, titled Black Swans and White Whales respectively. The term “black swan” refers to an unpredictable and rare occurrence that has a significant impact, often causing widespread consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their rarity, their severe impact, and their retrospective predictability. While typically used to refer to large-scale political or economic events, the term is explicitly used by Louisa in an ominous fashion. She spots an actual swan, which puts her in mind of the term while she is talking to Min. This ominous sense of foreboding is realized when Min is murdered by the security team that he and Louisa are supposed to be investigating. Min’s death is, in this respect, a black swan event. The death of an intelligence operative is unpredictable, rare, and has a severe impact, especially on Louisa. Since she is already cognizant of the term, the black swan takes on a special significance for Louisa as she tries to reason herself into retrospective predictability. She wants to know whether she could have averted the accident and saved Min, but she is left with no answers. The symbol of the black swan is much more pronounced for Louisa specifically because she is aware of the symbolic significance. She wants the world to be reasonable, ordered, and comprehensible, but she is left to deal with the tragic chaos of grief. The symbol of the black swan is important for Louisa because it would suggest that Min’s death is something other than a random tragedy.

The second part of Dead Lions is titled White Whales. In literature, a “white whale” symbolizes an obsessive pursuit, often of an elusive goal that brings peril or destruction to the pursuer. This term originates from Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick, in which Captain Ahab is fixated on hunting the white whale, Moby Dick, a massive and elusive creature that has previously caused him physical harm and personal anguish. The white whale, in this context, represents unreachable obsession, self-destruction, and relentless fixation on revenge or fulfillment. Again, the symbolism is explicitly deployed in the novel when Catherine tells Lamb that Popov is his white whale. Lamb is obsessed with catching the mythical Soviet spy. Similarly, Katinsky’s decades-long obsession with revenge is motivated by a similar drive. These relics of the Cold War era are still chasing their white whales, unable to put aside their obsessions. The Cold War may be over in reality, but it continues in the minds of these men. They still chase their white whales, they still obsess over their enemies, and they still pursue their goals, no matter how self-destructive or caustic they may be.

Cicadas

Cicadas are insects known for their distinctive, loud buzzing sounds and unique life cycles, often emerging in large numbers after spending years underground as nymphs. Some species have life cycles of 13 or 17 years, in which they hibernate underground for many years and then emerge at the same time in overwhelming numbers. The Soviet-era spy program was codenamed cicadas because it involved a large number of sleeper agents being buried in an enemy society, only to be unleashed at an unspecified time in the future to wreak havoc on an enemy. There is a deliberate symbolism to the choice of codename, as it explicitly describes how the plan will function. The choice of codename, in this respect, is a Soviet double bluff. As with the mythical figure of Popov, spies like Katinsky sought to keep British intelligence second-guessing. By spreading the rumor that the cicadas existed, the British would become paranoid about sleeper agents in their society. This is the bluff. The double bluff is that the cicadas were real, buried even deeper in British society than the intelligence services could ever imagine. The entire town of Upshott, it seems, is a collection of cicada agents. The Soviets use deliberate symbolism to goad the British into disbelieving that a plan could be so ambitious or intrusive.

The symbolism of the cicadas extends beyond the actual sleeper agents. In a symbolic manner, old spies like Katinsky, Lamb, and David Cartwright are still consumed by their experiences of the Cold War. These memories, experiences, grievances, and methods are buried deep within them, only to be unleashed all at once when Dickie Bow is found dead on a bus. The cicada is a symbol of the Cold War memories which are hidden inside the old spies and reawakened all at once. Lamb feels these old wounds reopening, which is why he is so driven to investigate the seemingly inconsequential death of Dickie Bow. The cicada is a symbol of how these men remain captured by the war they fought many decades earlier.