Timeline
17 chapters
BOOK 2Mertvye l'vy
CHAPTER 1
1
In a stalled train outside Swindon, retired spy Dicky Bow spots a Russian agent he once knew from his Berlin days. When the train diverts to Reading, Dicky follows the man onto a replacement bus bound for Oxford, reawakening long-dormant instincts and a sense of purpose. The chapter closes with Dicky alone in the dark, realizing the modern world has left him behind, yet he is still moving forward with the target.
CHAPTER 2
2
In this chapter, a stray cat explores the decrepit Slough House, introducing the ragtag team of disgraced MI5 agents: the reclusive techie Roddy Ho, the bickering new arrivals Marcus Longridge and Shirley Dander, the lovers Min Harper and Louisa Guy, the stoic Catherine Standish, the brooding River Cartwright, and the absent, foul-mouthed leader Jackson Lamb. Meanwhile, Lamb investigates the suspicious death of informant Dickie Bow on a bus in Oxford, discovering a hidden phone with an unsent message reading "Cicadas." The chapter establishes the dysfunctional office dynamics and hints at a larger conspiracy.
CHAPTER 3
3
In Slough House, Jackson Lamb's sudden interest in the death of former informant Dicky Bow disrupts the usual inertia. After learning Bow died on a bus en route to Oxford, Lamb retrieves CCTV footage showing a suspicious bald man boarding a train at Oxford station, prompting him to assign Shirley Dander to track the man's movements. Meanwhile, River Cartwright and Catherine Standish confront Lamb about his secretive behavior, while new agents Min Harper and Louisa Guy begin a high-profile security assignment in a gleaming City skyscraper, both hoping it might earn them a return to Regent's Park.
CHAPTER 4
4
In the chapter, River Cartwright visits his grandfather S.C. to discuss Jackson Lamb's theory that a KGB-style assassination unit is operating in Britain, focusing on the suspicious death of former agent Richard "Dicky" Bow. S.C. recounts Bow's 1989 Berlin disappearance and his claim of being kidnapped by the mythical Soviet operative Alexander Popov, a fabricated legend designed to mislead Western intelligence. Meanwhile, Catherine Standish battles her alcoholism while reflecting on her diminished life, and security guard Cal Fenton discovers an intruder at a data-storage facility, realizing his phone has been stolen and the power cut as danger closes in.
CHAPTER 5
5
In the shabby London office of Wentworth Academy, Jackson Lamb confronts Nikolai Katinsky, a washed-up former KGB cipher clerk now running a dubious language school. Lamb probes Katinsky about "cicadas," a rumored Soviet sleeper network, but the Russian insists the lead was fabricated during his old interrogation. Meanwhile, Shirley Dander tracks a bald man to the Cotswolds village of Upshot, while Min Harper pursues two Russian bodyguards through London traffic on a bicycle, determined to discover their true hotel.
Show all 17 chapters
CHAPTER 6
6
Roddy Ho rages at betrayal after discovering his online girlfriend is a 54-year-old woman, then faces Catherine Standish's intrusion into his domain. She exposes his fake-work program and blackmails him into helping the team despite Lamb's orders, leaving him awed despite his fury. Meanwhile, Lamb secures Diana Taverner's reluctant support for an off-books operation investigating the "Cicadas" message, while Min and Louisa track the Russians' real lodging and navigate their own tense dynamic.
CHAPTER 7
7
In this chapter, Jackson Lamb and Catherine Standish uncover that the death of former agent Dicky Bow was orchestrated as a trap involving the legendary Soviet spy Alexander Popov, whose backstory involves the destruction of a secret Soviet nuclear research city. Lamb sends River Cartwright on a mission to Gloucestershire while simultaneously investigating the suspicious circumstances of Bow's death, including a planted mobile phone message and evidence of sabotage. Meanwhile, at Slough House, Min Harper's surveillance of Russian operatives leads to an unexpected drinking session, and Diana Tavenner learns of James Webb's unauthorized contact with oligarch Arkady Pashkin, setting up multiple layers of deception and potential danger.
CHAPTER 8
8
In the sleepy Cotswold village of Upshot, undercover agent River Cartwright fails to uncover any trace of the mysterious Mr. Els, instead becoming entangled with local barmaid Kelly Tropper. Meanwhile, in London, Louisa Gay—still reeling from Min Harper’s death—prepares to escort oligarch Arkady Pashkin to the upcoming “Needle” summit, while Jackson Lamb’s team discovers Mr. Els has already fled the country via Gatwick. The chapter’s tone is one of quiet dread and uneasy anticipation, as personal grief, professional suspicion, and the threat of hidden agendas converge on the eve of a high-stakes meeting.
CHAPTER 9
9
In a stalled London traffic jam, Arkady Pashkin demands a motorcycle escort and reveals political ambitions tied to an upcoming oil summit, while Louisa Guy, still grieving Min Harper’s death, suspects his murder was orchestrated to sabotage the meeting. Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb receives intelligence from disgraced ex-agent Sam Chapman confirming that Rebecca Mitchell, the driver who killed Min, has a hidden past with Russian contacts, and that the man who abducted Dickie Bow two decades earlier is now operating in Upshott. As River Cartwright prepares to infiltrate the former airbase under cover of night, the chapter tightens the web linking past Soviet plots to present-day violence, leaving every character poised on the edge of exposure.
CHAPTER 10
10
River enters the village pub and chats with locals including the Butterfields, whose son Damien belongs to the flying club, while deflecting questions about his writing and avoiding the suspicious Griff Yates. Meanwhile in London, Louisa—dressed for seduction—meets the oligarch Arkady Pashkin for dinner, planning to drug and interrogate him about Min’s death. The chapter ends with River and Griff sneaking onto the MoD firing range just as live night exercises begin, trapping River amid explosions.
CHAPTER 11
11
In this chapter, Roderick Ho is interrupted from his plan to sabotage Shana Bellman's relationship when Catherine Standish tasks him with analyzing a list of names connected to the mysterious Mr. A. Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb catches Shirley Dander eavesdropping and discusses with Standish the potential links between Arkady Pashkin and Alexander Popov, deciding against immediately notifying Regent's Park. The emotional tone is tense and conspiratorial, with characters operating in shadows—Ho reluctantly working, Standish seeking answers, and Lamb maintaining calculated detachment as they probe connections that may explain Min Harper's death.
CHAPTER 12
12
River, recovering from Griff's artillery prank, is rescued by elderly local Tommie Molt, who leads him to a secret flying-club hangar stocked with vodka. Meanwhile, in Slough House, Roddy Ho discovers that seventeen families—many of them suspected deep-cover Russian agents—moved en masse to the village of Upshott between March and June 1991. Lamb and Standish realize the network was deliberately relocated rather than recalled after the Cold War, and that someone now intends to reactivate them. River learns the same names match the parents of his new friends, including Kelly Tropper, and receives a warning that the threat to Louisa may be deliberate. The chapter ends with Lamb breaking into Nikolai Katinsky's empty office, confirming the old spy is living there but currently absent.
CHAPTER 13
13
In the dead of night, Jackson Lamb forces his way into Regent's Park to consult archivist Molly Doran, while his agent River Cartwright is abducted and bound to a cart by the seemingly harmless local Tommy Molt. Lamb learns that the late Nicholas Katinsky—long dismissed as a minor defector—was in fact the legendary Soviet spymaster Alexander Popov, who once orchestrated a phantom network of sleepers known as the cicadas. As dawn breaks, Lamb realizes Katinsky, now terminally ill, is staging a final, lethal operation, and River, left helpless among ruins, understands the fertilizer he saw is meant to become a bomb.
CHAPTER 14
14
Morning light finds Louisa preparing to meet Marcus for their surveillance of Arkady Pashkin, while Catherine Standish learns from Roddy Ho that Pashkin’s biography is fabricated and that the oligarch may be a construct. Meanwhile, River Cartwright, battered and stranded, realizes Kelly Tropper’s plane is loaded with fertilizer and intends to crash into the Needle on the day of the meeting. The chapter’s tone is one of gathering dread: London’s streets seethe with protest, personal histories unravel, and a single aircraft climbs toward catastrophe.
CHAPTER 15
15
As a massive anti-bank protest snakes through central London, the chapter intercuts between the demonstration's festive front and its ominous anarchist rear guard, and a tense meeting inside the Needle where Arkady Pashkin arrives with armed bodyguards and a white-noise device. Meanwhile, River Cartwright's urgent warning about a possible aerial attack triggers a "Code September" alert at Regent's Park, but he is intercepted and beaten by soldiers before he can fully communicate the threat. The emotional tone shifts from carnival protest to rising dread as the narrative converges on the skyscraper, suggesting an imminent catastrophe.
CHAPTER 16
16
In a coordinated operation, Kelly Tropper and Damien Butterfield fly over London to drop leaflets on anti-City protesters, while a fake oligarch named Pashkin uses the ensuing chaos to rob a diamond vault in the Needle. Meanwhile, River Cartwright confronts the aging Russian spymaster Nikolai Katinsky in the village churchyard, learning that Katinsky has activated long-dormant sleeper agents to bomb the village itself. Katinsky detonates a bomb that kills him and destroys the church, as the agents refuse to act, and the chapter ends with the collapse of the bell tower amid the broader unraveling of the Russian plot.
CHAPTER 17
17
In the wake of a failed protest march that turned into a riot, London’s financial district is shut down; fires burn, a police van is firebombed, and the chairman of the limitations committee resigns after the City is evacuated on his advice. At Slough House the Slow Horses sit in uneasy silence: Shirley and Marcus suspect each other of being Diana Taverner’s mole, River broods over his grandfather’s possible role in a Cold-War atrocity, and Louisa quietly mourns Min’s death while fingering the diamond ring she never wanted. Only Jackson Lamb, feet on his desk, seems untroubled—until a mouse appears and vanishes, leaving him muttering that a cat would be useful.
Follow Slough House in Bookworm
Follow Slough House spoiler-safe in Bookworm — scoped to the book you're on.