The Secret Hours: The Instant Sunday Times Bestselling Thriller from the Author of Slow Horses

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Meanwhile, in the present, as the publicity blurb tells us, one of the many Government Enquiries, primarily focused on finding a way to shelve out almost everything the state should do to private ventures, is underway. The narration was excellent with a nice mixture of gravitas, this is an espionage novel, but also managing to deliver the funny dialogue and humour with some comic flair. At times I though he sounded a little bit like Alec Guinness in his George Smiley role. A first-rate performance. Cover image of the Baskerville (UK) edition released September 14, 2023. Image sourced from Goodreads.

Amidst the ongoing jealousy and rivalry between the British government and the British Intelligence Service, the Prime Minister, who nurses a huge grudge against the spy service, institutes a program called Monochrome. Well that sounds intriguing! From what Herron has said in interviews, this isn’t a Slough House novel but possibly part of the same world.Thus the Monochrome panel, whose members are Griselda Fleet, Malcolm Kyle, and others, spends years interviewing people, to no avail. One of the smart moves is to conceal names: so 'First Desk' and cover/field names are used throughout, though Herron aficionados will spot our people immediately. Two years ago, the Monochrome inquiry was set up to investigate the British secret service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out misconduct, allowing the civil servants seconded to the inquiry, Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, unfettered access to confidential information in the service archives. The Secret Hours is a slow burning, artfully told and explosive excavation of the messy era of post-Cold War espionage.

It’s not all Aston Martin sports cars and martinis (‘shaken, not stirred’) in Herron’sspy world…Billed as a standalone, this smartly written, funny, and complex thriller is a good introduction for newbies, but fans of Herron’s ‘Slough House’ books will recognize a few crossover characters.” A gripping spy thriller from the bestselling author of Slow Horses , about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin—an absolute must-read for Slough House fans. The novel begins with the striking opening line: “The worst smell in the world is a dead badger”. Attention grabber or a broader metaphor?Herron is an excellent writer. If you have been a fan/reader, you would have to agree. Having been a while since the last Slough House series book, I had forgotten his keen cutting wit and gallows humor, and it was a treat to be immersed in it again. He makes me laugh out loud... bear in mind it is Brit wit. The storyline is split between two distinct timelines, the current being the last couple of years and past being what happened in Berlin during 1994. The current strand is dominated by the Monochrome Enquiry, which is intended as a political sleight of hand, a cover up, a whitewash intended to come up with nothing, except a figure from the past thinks differently. The Berlin section covers an unofficial operation that profoundly changes the lives of those involved. The two eventually coalesce and reveal a myriad of surprises. Slow Horses was published by Constable in 2010, but the firm declined the opportunity to publish the next book in the series in the United Kingdom due to disappointing sales of its predecessor. Soho published the Slough House novels in the United States, and John Murray started republishing the series in the UK from 2015. [7] A gripping spy thriller from the bestselling author of Slow Horses,about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin—an absolute must-read for Slough House fans.

Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas (2022) - Includes all novellas in the Slough House series published as of 2022. What classified secrets does OTIS hold that see a long-redundant spy being chased through Devon’s green lanes in the dark? What happened in a newly reunified Berlin that someone is desperate to keep under wraps? And who will win the battle for the soul of the secret service – or was that decided a long time ago?

Success!

It’s been two years of wading through pointless and irrelevant testimonies from low-level employees, and they’re nearing the end of their remit with nothing to show for it. A bombshell of a case file has mysteriously landed in their laps but, confoundingly, they’re told to shut it down. Instead, Griselda and Malcolm call the central party to testify. While this going on, in the present, there's a move afoot to remove a small but significant part of MI5 to highest bidder public companies and First Desk is not having it. Superb . . . The expertly crafted tale probes political machinations, bureaucratic holdups, and the temptations of revenge. Come for the banter and Briticisms; stay for the conviction that it’s never too late to right past wrongs.” An intricate espionage thriller from Herron, whose Slough House series is the basis for Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. Bonus: This terrific standalone offers an enticing slice of Slough House’s origin story.”