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Two years ago, a hostile prime minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service.
Monochrome's mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so.
But MI5's formidable First Desk did not become Britain's top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck
watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain.
Until the eve of Monochrome's shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.
The Secret Hours is a dazzling entry point into Mick Herron's body of work, a standalone spy thriller that is at once unnerving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. It is also the breathtaking secret history that Slough House fans have been waiting for.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 12, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9798889567066
- File size: 369047 KB
- Duration: 12:48:50
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from July 3, 2023
Herron departs from his bestselling Slough House series for a riveting standalone thriller that combines modern political machinations with Cold War–era spy craft. New leadership in the British parliament results in the official cancellation of Monochrome, an infamously ineffective two-year-old inquiry meant to expose historical misconduct by MI5. Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the civil servants who led the inquiry, are devastated: the embarrassment of Monochrome has all but eliminated their chances for future employment. Not long after Monochrome’s cancellation, however, a stranger slips Malcolm an official file revealing an off-the-books Cold War–era MI5 operation that ended badly in 1994 Berlin. Griselda and Malcolm begin to investigate, and then testimony from the agent assigned to surveil Berlin station chief Brinsley Miles uncovers a new conspiracy to infiltrate British intelligence—which the once-disgraced civil servants are now uniquely positioned to thwart. Herron toggles between present-day London and Cold War–era Berlin, crafting memorable, morally complex characters along the way, without sacrificing any of his trademark humor (the book’s opening sentence: “The worst smell in the world is a dead badger”). Espionage fans of all stripes will devour this exemplary outing. -
Gerard Doyle performs this stand-alone dispatch from Mick Herron's cynical "spook street" world with such dry resignation that it is often laugh-out-loud funny, or would be if it weren't so believable. In his Slough House novels (and their TV adaptations, the riveting "Slow Horses") Herron is doing for MI-5 what Dickens did for Chancery and the Circumlocution Office. This novel omits Slough House, but that series' icily corrupt character known as First Desk is either the same woman or cut from the same cloth, and the hapless innocents, villains, and cogs in the system are similarly, wonderfully (or frighteningly) vintage Herron. Doyle's vocal control is masterly, his pacing, range, and attention to detail a perfect match for Herron's, which is highest praise. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
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