The Secret Hours

Gabi's Review

Delighting in commentary and wry wit, Mick Herron always does justice to the underdog. If you've savored the Slow Horses series, The Secret Hours will not disappoint, offering up the same fascination with public and the secret service that are Herron's specialties. Rich in grand themes and the allure of the unexpected, this story is driven by the intimate encounters of its characters, who are the foils and heroes of its pervasive corruption. An absolute must-read.

Publishers Reviews

Two years ago, a Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, an auditing of the British Secret Service. It gave 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. But MI5's formidable First Desk has succeeded thwarting the inquiry at every turn. But on the eve of Monochrome's shuttering, an MI5 case file appears without explanation.

 Financial Times of London

'In post-Wall Berlin or post-Brexit London, twin cities of seedy menace and shadowy intrigue, Herron steers through a snaking plot with his habitual flair for pungently precise scene-setting and deftly turned comic repartee....

....Herron keeps up his gravity-defying balancing act: belly-laugh spy spoof on one side, elegiac state-of-the-nation satire on the other, with a thin, taut line of polished prose between.' 

*A gripping standalone thriller with a riveting reveal about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin - a dazzling entry-point to Mick Herron's writing and an unmissable read for Slough House fans.*

'I doubt I'll read a more enjoyable novel all year' Paula Hawkins

'Pitch-perfect' Lee Child

'Terrific' The Times

 'Never has a work of popular fiction delighted me more' The Spectator

'A modern rival to Ian Fleming and John le Carre' Sunday Times

'One of his best books yet' Daily Telegraph