Mick Herron: Secret Hours (2023, Informa Professional)
English language
Published July 7, 2023 by Informa Professional.
Covers a back story from the Slow Horses series. Stands alone. The usual 'comes to be expected ' humour and brilliant writing of the spooks genre.
Loved getting to know this author after learning about Slow Horses on AppleTV and really enjoyed this spy novel as well.
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. returnreturnBut 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. returnreturnAfter that action-packed opening, readers spend a bit of time in the doldrums with the committee that has been set up to …
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. returnreturnBut 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. returnreturnAfter 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... returnreturnI 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.
