57 pages 1 hour read

Mick Herron

Dead Lions

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Black Swans”

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions alcohol and substance use disorder, suicide, and terrorist acts.

An electrical issue disrupts the London transport network. Among the confused passengers is an elderly man and former spy named Dickie Bow. He has no ticket or destination, but he is following a man whom he refers to as “the hood.” As the passengers disembark the train for a bus, Dickie follows the hood through the crowd. Dickie’s “hardcore days” are over; he drank heavily, and his memories are muddled. He is convinced, however, that the hood is a Russian spy. On the bus, he sits several seats back and misses his old life. He is convinced that he recognizes the hood from his time in Berlin, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With his cell phone in his hand, Dickie thinks about who he could call about this figure. He suspects that no one will listen to him. He thinks about other people who have been rejected or pushed aside from the intelligence services, remembering how some of them have fallen under the watch of Jackson Lamb and the slow horses of

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