Thanks to Soho Crime and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this fantastic book!
Although it's billed as a standalone, faithful followers of Herron's Slough House books will immediately recognize familiar characters from that series.
The story moves between Cold War Berlin and current day London. A low level MI5 staff member is sent to Berlin with a mission to make sure the agents there are following official procedures. In the present, a seemingly quiet, retired academic flees for his life when his house is broken into. Put the timelines together with First Desk dealing with a government investigation(Monochrome) into it's operations and you have a marvelous mix that will keep the reader enthralled.
There's all the skulduggery of political intrigue intertwined with Cold War Berlin ops and a seemingly pointless government investigation.
Slough House readers will welcome this fast-paced backstory to the series that reveals so much about the characters.

I read and enjoyed most of the Slough House series, so I was looking forward to reading THE SECRET HOURS, but I found it a tough slog. It's pitched as 'a stand-alone novel,' but it's really not. It's actually an extended in-joke and a nudge-nudge-wink-wink for readers of the Slough House series. As I already said, I am indeed one of those, but I still found most of THE SECRET HOURS to be confusing and occasionally downright incomprehensible. The time, POV, and location shifts were frequent, sudden, complicated, and often confounding. They made reading THE SECRET HOURS very hard work. There is some fine writing here, but for me it didn't add up to a fine novel.

I also question the appeal of the book to American audiences. The in-joke quality of the book's substance extended into the way the story was told. The Brit cultural references on which many of the plot points turned simply don't make sense to many Americans. Do you know what a 'PPEist' is? No, of course you don't. The narrative seemed constantly to be reminding me I simply wasn't cool enough to understand all this stuff, and that's not a good way to connect with a reader.

Far too often the phrase "heir to John le Carré" crops up on the cover blurbs and articles praising the latest spy novel soon to be released. Few, if any, deserve the praise, nor do the novels themselves ever contain such quality. Sadly it's become de rigueur in order to help move product. Mick Herron is one of the only writers currently deserving of the exaltation; he remains in a league of his own.

His newest, due out in September, is no exception. The Secret Hours lives in the same world as the Slough House series, and familiar characters abound (reading any of Herron's previous work isn't required as this is a true standalone). The premise surrounds an inquiry, imposed by the PM, into any malfeasance by the service. Lady Di won't have that and effectively shuts down the committee, but not before one lone file and scandal makes its way across their desk.

Despite the few reviews I read praising the humor, I didn't find this book quite as funny as some of the Slough House novels, but the sharp wit is as intact as ever. Mick's writing does remind me a lot of le Carré minus the all-consuming rage and contempt the latter often leveled at the intelligence apparatus's he wrote about. There's an intellectual acuity with his work that isn't often seen in spy fiction.

This one is well worth a look, even for those not vet indoctrinated as a certified Slow Horse. I tore through it, and it may very well be my favorite thing I've read since Fesperman's Winter Work. Spybrarians: you won't be disappointed.

The Secret Hours is presented as a standalone spy thriller, rather than as an installment in Mick Herron’s popular Slough House series, which is perfectly legitimate. Slough House itself plays almost no role in the novel, and readers need no familiarity with that series. Still, The Secret Hours answers some questions which may be in the minds of Slough House readers or viewers of the AppleTV+ adaptation Slow Horses.

Despite opening with an extended and exciting home invasion / chase scene, The Secret Hours is not essentially plot driven. Rather, its primary interest lies in the successive revelations of hidden identities and other secrets, and these provide plenty of interest for readers. Herron’s trademark wit is, of course, also on display, as in “anything created on a typewriter, even an electric one, looked like incunabula now,” “Somewhere inside that petulant, uptight young man was an arrogant arsehole trying to get out,” and “It’s not that I dislike company, it’s more that I can’t stand it.”

Overall, The Secret Hours is not quite up to the standard of Herron’s very finest work—as, say, Dead Lions—but it’s still absolutely first rate. I highly recommend it not only for fans of spy fiction, but for anyone who appreciates fine writing.

Publisher: If you haven’t already done so, you should correct these typos before publication: “apparent even thorough this prism” and “more then he pretended to be.”

So I started the book during a particularly hectic week and had a little trouble keeping track of the characters and the simultaneous plot lines. Then came the slow dawning realization that some of the characters were quite familiar - of course you'll recognize THAT First Desk. And then things start to unfold with startling speed. Without spoilers, suffice to say that this yet another wonderful back story from Slow Horses. Mick Herron is once again at his best and I am so glad!

This is called a standalone novel from the author of the excellent Slough House series but it's more of a backstory, involving several regular characters and their Cold War beginnings. It's fascinating and dark and, in typical Herron fashion, fun as the story moves from present day to 1994 Berlin and back and gives great insight into some of the main players in the series. Highly recommended.

Another great read from Mick Herron. A big of back story on some of the characters we know from Slough Horses. All in all a great addition to the set

A government that's hostile to MI5 and plans to sell off bits of it to private interests sets up a review panel to investigate misdeeds of the intelligence service, but the wily First Desk contrives a way to keep all sensitive documents from the committee - until someone slips a file into the shopping basket of one of its members and suddenly the committee has work to do - just as it's being disbanded.

But let me back up. The novel open with a man's peaceful rural retreat is invaded by some enthusiastic but ham-handed abductors. He manages to escape (and he has a carefully prepared escape plan ready to go) but we don't really learn who he is and why he's under attack for quite some time.

After that action-packed opening, readers spend a bit of time in the doldrums with the committee that has been set up to fail, until the file is discovered and a witness is called, taking us back to Berlin not long after the wall came down. Which is when some weirdly familiar characters begin to assemble...

I imagine this novel could be read by anyone, but its pleasures really belong to those who have been reading the Slough House series, or at least have seen the television version (which is quite good and faithful to the books) because ... well, I can't say without spoilers. But it's another smart espionage novel with a wicked sense of the absurd that is Mick Herron's hallmark.