For fans like me, the release of a new Mick Herron book is a big treat. This one doesn’t disappoint! Herron’s take on a post-Brexit post-COVID UK, where the ruling class is in thrall to private money, even if it could threaten national security, is scathing and cynical, but one that feels close to the truth.
In London, the toothless Monochrome inquiry, set up by a vindictive prime minister to expose Secret Service misdeeds, is about to wrap up, rendered powerless by the Service’s First Desk. But the game is changed when a file falls into the inquiry’s hands, threatening to expose long-buried secrets.
A long-retired spy, living a quiet life in Devon, realises his true identity has been exposed when intruders break into his house. Someone is desperate to appear before Monochrome and talk about what happened in Berlin in the days when it was newly unified. Others are equally keen to keep the past buried. But this battle involves not just the past, but also the future of the Service.
Billed as a standalone novel, The Secret Hours can be enjoyed by readers new to Herron’s work. However, fans of the ‘Slow Horses’ series will love the back story development for several key figures.
Reviewed by Melinda Woledge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORMick Herron is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and short story writer, best known for his Slough House thrillers. The series has been adapted into a TV series starring Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb.
In 2008, inspired by world events, Mick began writing the Slough House series, featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. The first novel, Slow Horses, was published in 2010. Some years later, it was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as one of “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time”.
The Slough House novels have been published in 20 languages; have won both the CWA Steel and Gold daggers; have been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year four times; and have won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz prize. Mick is also the author of the highly acclaimed novels Reconstruction, This is What Happened and Nobody Walks.
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