I loved Mick Herron's SECRET HOURS, but it's inexplicably being billed as a "standalone" when it's very much a "Slough House" novel. The book gets off to a slow start after the first chapter, but once it finally gets going, it's wonderful.

POSSIBLE SPOILER -- And I don't understand why Diana Taverner and Jackson Lamb, who are front-and-center through most of the story, aren't referred to by their names. It seems pointless to me.

Another terrific spy thriller from Herron. Although not billed as part of the Slow Horses series, the novel provides background to the characters in the series. An investigation into the British Secret Service is going nowhere until a file is mysteriously delivered into the “shopping cart” of one of the staff. This leads to an investigation of activities in the Berlin office after the fall of the Wall and the end of the Cold War.

This book! A superb read, which is well paced and well plotted. The writing just gets better and better. This is a great book.

The series (and non-series standalones like this title) goes from strength to strength as a state-of-the-nation novel. Was delighted to interview Mick Herron for The Big Read, Zoomer magazine's featured longread, at publication time.

THE SECRET HOURS is billed as a "standalone spy thriller," but it's more of a SLOW HORSES-adjacent entry. Reading Mick Herron's previous brilliant comic espionage novels would help enormously in appreciating this work. If you have, then THE SECRET HOURS stands among Herron's best work and might even be his masterpiece. It begins in prime Herron country: petty behind-the-scenes backbiting as a top-secret tribunal is established, staffed by disinterested noteworthy names (including a spy novelist that's a juicy send-up of Herron himself) and spearheaded by civil servants who regard the assignment as a career dead-end. Then a file is mysteriously slipped into their hands and a long-buried caper from Berlin in the 1990s in the early days of German reunification is brought to light, with ramifications for present day UK politics and some of the beloved characters from the SLOW HORSES books, here referred to obliquely. Every bit as funny as Herron's other work - as always, the metaphors are choice - and fueled by righteous anger. A delight.

I am a long time fan of Mick Herron’s writing style. His brand of literary flair interwoven with dark world-weary wit and stinging political and social satire has always really appealed to me, and this new standalone novel The Secret Hours does not fail to deliver on that score. If you are more inclined to tell an emperor he is wearing no clothes than standing by polishing a set of rose coloured glasses, then this writing will elicit many wry smiles from you.

But it’s not all clever banter and realpolitik. There are life and death matters at play too, and that’s where The Secret Hours plumbed unexpected depth for me. One of the several alternating first-person narratives takes us back to Berlin in the heady aftermath of reunification, where both vengeance and reinvention were on the menu. When spies are involved, who can a new kid on the block trust? The lies, blackmail and deception kept me turning the pages, eager for the next reveal. And, Herron delivers many in this outing. Continue reading at BookloverBookReviews.com

This book was a tough read for me. It started out with promise. And it ended well, with the story all tied up nicely. But the middle part was a tough read for me. The action seemed to grind to a halt at we were lead through an exhaustive story in flashback. I just found there to be too much extraneous information and mundane details.

Taking a break from the action at Slough House allows Herron some room to get out of London a bit while still circling back to his primary interests and illuminating some helpful background. A superb origin story.

Max Janacek was enjoying his retirement in a small cottage in the English countryside when his past came calling. The skills he used to survive a violent attack were not those of a retired English professor, but those of a man who’d lived his life as another person in another country as a member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Serving in Berlin in Cold War Berlin in 1994, he’d made some powerful enemies. Now that they’d finally tracked him down, it was time to reach out to his old employers.
Mick Herron is the finest espionage author of today, and is a worthy successor of John Le Carre. The Secret Hours is a standalone thriller, an insider’s look at the twisted world of MI5, full of intrigue, lies, manipulation, backstabbing, and occasional world-saving heroism. Readers familiar with Herron’s Slough House novels will find hints of what is to come. Names may or may not be familiar, but characters almost certainly will be.
The Secret Hours is on its way to the top of the best seller list. Highly recommended.

Fans of the Slough House series by Mick Herron, will not be disappointed by The Secret Hours, his new standalone. When it comes to writing espionage fiction, Herron is one of the best. His books have intricate plots with overlapping storylines, interesting characters, and a sharp wit, especially when directed at politicians and government bureaucracy.

The first plot thread will immediately grab your attention. The book begins with an introduction to Max Jancek, a retired academic living in a cottage in North Devon. Max has been leading a quiet life for years, but his response when an intruder breaks into his cottage late one night clearly demonstrates that being known as an academic is nothing but a cover for Max. If Max is to elude the people after him, he needs to find out who sent them and why now.

The fast paced action of Max’s storyline, slows as Herron changes focus to the origins of the Monochrome inquiry, the second plot thread. As an example of Herron’s sharp wit, he describes the establishment of the inquiry as being announced with less fanfare than the then-PM’s mini-break at Peppa Pig World. No names are mentioned but we all can remember a cringe-worthy Peppa Pig World visit. Bearing a bit of a grudge from past scrutiny of his actions, the then-PM demands an investigation into the historical over-reach of the intelligence service.

In order to satisfy the PM but with no desire for actual change, a committee is formed for the inquiry. The composition of the committee ensures that there is little chance of anything significant being accomplished. The First Chair is Griselda Fleet. Her husband is addicted to gambling. All he left for Griselda when their marriage came to an end was responsibility for their daughter and a huge debt load. Griselda is determined not to rock the boat as she needs the regular pay cheques.

Herron does a terrific job of conveying that the committee is just going through the motions. The tempo of his writing slows when he writes this section of the book. The cases heard are little more than petty grievances buried under layers of bureaucracy. Even reading the transcripts from their meetings is painfully slow.

Things change dramatically when the Second Chair, Malcolm mysteriously finds himself in possession of secret documents tied to past events in Berlin that occurred after the wall came down. The committee finally has a real case to investigate. This sets off the third plot thread. Herron manages to weave these different storylines into an engaging read. Although this book is considered a standalone, some of the individuals in the Berlin storyline may feel familiar to Slough House fans.

In "The Secret Hours," by Mick Herron, Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle are the unlucky ones chosen to chair Monochrome, an inquiry designed to embarrass the British Intelligence Services by revealing examples of their past failures and misdeeds. Fleet, Kyle, and others on Monochrome's panel interrogate witnesses for two years, but no significant information emerges from what turns out to be a waste of time and money. Therefore, it is shocking when someone unexpectedly comes forward with new testimony. She tells what she knows about a British agent who planned an unauthorized operation in Berlin in 1994 that went up in flames.

Over the years, Herron has entertained us with a series of sardonic novels about Slough House (a purgatory for disgraced spies). His latest work of fiction has the same dark humor as its predecessor, but his dense plot is difficult to grasp. There are so many characters that readers could use an annotated list to keep track of them.

As "The Secret Hours" progresses, we learn about an unsanctioned effort to flush out a brutal killer as well as a more contemporary threat to the integrity of the British government. Ultimately, long-held grudges and the disclosure of scandalous secrets lead to a violent reckoning. Although his descriptive writing is excellent, Herron relies too much on lengthy exposition to get his points across. He leaves us with the impression that England's woes are exacerbated by her self-serving, venal, and incompetent leaders.

THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron is a stand-alone spy thriller from a master of his craft; Herron has won numerous awards and is often compared to John LeCarré or even Ian Fleming. In this novel, spies are investigating spies due to the establishment of the politically motivated Monochrome inquiry, staffed by Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, two civil servants without stellar pasts. The much more exciting parts of the book involve Max, a retired spy suddenly forced to go on the run. All leads back to events in 1990s Berlin. Called "gripping, cryptic, tragic, and suspenseful," THE SECRET HOURS received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly and is an ABA Indie Next Pick for September 2023. The audiobook has an excellent beginning – quite vividly describing a dead badger and Max's escape from his rural cottage. Sadly, it then shifts to bureaucratic politics with little differentiation between characters and is therefore less compelling for a stretch. Overall, though, the text combines Herron's talent for writing action-adventure and amusing, witty satire. Definitely a title that will be enjoyed by readers of spy fiction.

The Secret Hours is a great read. It is a stand alone novel, but it gives a glimpse of the background of some of the characters in Mick Herron's Slow Horses series. This series is also outstanding.
Mick Herron's writing style is colorful, imaginative, thought provoking and humorous. He paints very vivid pictures of every day occurrences such as a rainstorm on window, or someone walking down a street, It is a book to read slowly and carefully, savoring each morsel.
All the characters are well developed and interesting whether liked or not. The story twists and weaves between present day London and Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Events that took place in Berlin become the focus in present day London. The story line has mystery, suspense, action, betrayal, romance, and humor just to name a few points.
MI5 secrets from a Berlin operation are unfolding after many years. Some characters want revenge, while others want the story to remain buried. Thus begins a very intricate and gripping tale.

Regent's Park is where the British spies work. There are always machinations brewing. A committee entitled Monochrome is convened to investigate past indiscretions. However, Regent's Park pulls their teeth before the meetings even get off the ground, informing Monochrome that no files will be provided from the Park. Meanwhile, in Devon, an older man is driven from his home by a team of assassins. He has no idea why. The day before Monochrome is set to sunset, a file appears that seems to be an operation Berlin from the 1970s that meets the criteria for Monochrome's mandate. A witness is called. Alison Park spent some months in Berlin, investigating a chief spook at Berlin House, who was hell-bent on killing a former Stasi agent. He is spending a lot of the Park's money on his mission. And that operation has now spilled over into the present. This was an interesting novel, with a very complex plot that made it difficult to read. But, once all the characters were lined up, it moved along to a conclusion that was fairly foreseeable. While not a part of the Slough House series, the book read like most of the Slough House books.

Get ready for a fast paced but intellectual dive into post WWII secrets come to light, all set within the structures of the British bureaucracy and intelligence agencies. See my full Good Reads Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5775374560

After my last disastrous expedition into non-Slough House territory (This is What Happened, 2018), I was a little worried where Mick Herron’s new novel might take me. Fortunately it’s more Slough House-adjacent than standalone (though it takes quite a while to get there) and has a similarly enjoyable mix of tradecraft, black humor, and back room politicking though does lack the fuck uppery of our beloved slow horses.

Three stories are woven together and then connect up at the end: Max Janacek, an old spy gone to ground in rural Devon, is dug up by some bad actors and goes on the run; the Monochrome inquiry is set up to investigate Secret Service corruption and over-reaching; and one of Monochrome’s witnesses tells her story of an operation gone pear-shaped in Berlin in the 1990’s.

It is in the latter two threads we meet some familiar faces though they are not going under familiar names, for no real reason that I can see other than to make the reader in the know feel smug. First Desk (who we know as Diana Taverner) is up to her old tricks manipulating politicians and finances to protect her territory. Brinsley Miles is out in the field in Berlin but is instantly recognizable (to old hands) as Jackson Lamb by his habit of making a cigarette appear out of nowhere. There is one other significant character who we know by another name but that would be a spoiler.

Things take time to get rolling and take a very long time to connect up. The Berlin story is the heart of the novel (but not long enough to be a novel in its own right) and is full of post-Wall atmosphere. Our guide (and Monochrome witness) is the pseudonymous Alison North, seconded by David Cartwright for double agent reasons to Berlin. Here she meets up with Miles and they make up a trio with a debonair German, known as Otis, and spend evenings in seedy bars and clubs. Alison gradually finds out what the two men are really up to (and it connects to the background of one of the Slough House novels) and is torn by what she should report to Cartwright. Her decision has devastating repercussions.

As with the last SH book I read (Slough House, 2021), I found the pacing a little odd with a lot of front loaded set up and then a rather hurried resolution. There are some satisfying nifty reveals and some pleasure to be had in seeing a younger Jackson Lamb in the field, so definitely worth a read for Slough House completists. It's also probably an enjoyable spy novel for SH first timers too, though they would miss some of the nuances.

Thanks to Soho Press and Netgalley for the dig

This standalone will satisfy any and all fans of the Slow Horses series. The back story of two of our favorites gets filled in, in the best Herron way possible. As always, smart, funny, thrilling, and a little poignant.

This book opens with a thrilling life or death chase through the English countryside that will leave you somewhat breathless. The action does taper off from there, but the rest of the story is so finely crafted that you don’t really miss the fast paced action. This is a stand alone book within the Slow House world, but it will delight fans of the series and create new ones.

There are quite a few new characters in this story, but many old ones that will be recognized by fans. Although it may take a bit as no one uses their real names and even their codes names are sometimes not the correct ones. But you will recognize them from their acerbic dialogue and actions.

Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle have been set the task of trying to find evidence of wrongdoing by MI5. We see most of the present day action through them. They are of course hindered from the start by First Desk, and things just never really take off for the Monochrome group. It is disheartening to see these two just trying to do their jobs but being stopped by people with more power than they have. It really wore them both down. But once they get the Otis file, their fires are lit once again, and they must get to the bottom of it.

I can’t really say much about the plot without giving things away, and it is way too complex to talk about here. But it does have a dual timeline between the present day and events that happened in 1994 in Berlin. It is in Berlin that some of the more beloved characters from Slow House will make their appearances. The story is tightly woven between past and present and involves a lot of political intrigue and a revenge plot. I can’t speak much about the present day politics, not being a British citizen, but I knew enough not to be totally lost.

I really enjoyed this stand alone and highly recommend it to everyone. If you have never read a Slow House book, this would be a good introduction. It has some backstory on some of the most well known characters and it is an entertaining read. Fans will enjoy learning more about their favorite characters and will understand them better for it.

I was reading Mick Herron before he was the biggest name in espionage fiction, and I greatly admire the fact he hasn’t let his blockbuster status modify his storytelling. His books are methodically constructed and steeped in almost satirical bureaucracy. Which is to say, it’s often antagonisms within MI5 that prove more threatening than the machinations of Britain’s enemies. That’s certainly the case with his latest, The Secret Hours, which is being packaged as a standalone even though it’s thickly enveloped in the Slough House ‘universe.’

Rest assured though, dear reader—you’re not being deceived by any sort of nefarious publishing marketing stratagem. Herron seamlessly camouflages various aspects of his established continuity in a way that will delight long-time readers, and go unnoticed by newcomers. It’s a standalone tale, absolutely, but one that enriches the Herron-verse. It’s a win-win for lovers of spy fiction.

The Monochrome inquiry was established to investigate the British Secret Service—specifically to uncover any misconduct and establish any over-zealousness of their mandate. Helming Monochrome is Griselda Fleet and her offsider Malcolm Kyle. They were assured unfettered access to MI5’s top secret archives, but two years later, the inquiry is being dead-ended at every turn, and its end is nigh. Then the OTIS file lands unexpectedly in their laps, which sees Herron’s tale start cutting between present-day London and Cold War-era Berlin, as details of an off-the-books MI5 operation comes to light, with deadly consequences for its survivors.

Once again, Herron masterfully chronicles the treacherous game-playing world of the security service. I just love the sardonic humour intrinsic to his work, which shines through here. It’s such a delicate balance; lay it on too thick, and it becomes pure parody and stripped of genuine stakes or drama. Herron makes bureaucratese genuinely enthralling. The Secret Hours offers superb pacing, intriguing complications, and his trademark offbeat characters. An excellent example of what his spy fiction offers.

Spies can never retire.

Mick Herron's latest proves that: The Secret Hours starts off with an explosive escape plan when a spy in hiding for 30 years hears the kitchen window going up at 3 a.m. and knows the jig is up.

Following the breathless chase is an overlong introduction to disgruntled government workers assigned to a commission that will never yield a report.

Then the action starts again. New Herron fans learn how good the writer is. Old fans start recognizing characters and stories from earlier books, appreciating the deep background this book offers.

Scenes from Berlin just after the wall came down are artfully described. Readers forego food and drink to learn how it ends.