The Secret Hours

ByMick Herron

Release Date: 2023-09-12
Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 602 Ratings

Description

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.

Set in the MI5 world of Slow Horses, now an Apple Original series from Apple TV starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Two years ago, a hostile prime minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating “historical over-reaching” by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed 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 in order to do so.

But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain.

Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.

The Secret Hours is a dazzling entry point into Mick Herron’s body of work, a standalone spy thriller that is at once unnerving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. It is also the breathtaking secret history that Slough House fans have been waiting for.

Reviews

Cleverly Plotted Thriller
5
By ChgoLaw67
The plot has numerous twists and turns but it all come together in the end. The author uses taut dialogue and sarcasm to comment on modern Britain. Well worth the time it took to read it.
Slough House Rules
4
By Auggie's Man
I love the Slough House series, and this provides an excellent foundation for the series. As always, excellent, amusing writing and fantastic characters. Thanks.
Starts slow but an awesome twisty plot reveal
5
By Matt742
The Secret Hours is an excellent offering in the Slow Horses world. It starts a bit slow but as soon as the first hint of connection to the Slough House world is unveiled, the pace picks up like a runaway fright train! Well done
Great
5
By bfe34512
Great read
Secret Hours
5
By burtmayne
Some writers of thrillers and espionage are good at describing action. The best, and Herron is certainly in this class, put the reader in the middle of it with only a minimal compass.
The Secret Hours
5
By Boca875
A perfectly first rate intellectually challenging spy novel in which all seemingly disparate threads are tightly woven into a thrilling conclusion which is satisfying and has the reader asking for more like this!
Doug Rothkopf -Boca Raton, Fl.
Bringing it home
5
By Mazzmpdx
What a thrilling and satisfying warp and weft of amazing characters exquisitely re-unveiled.
heart and soul
5
By Big Max 1
yes, it took half of the book to start where the point of the story is, but, totally totally worth it. I see Gary Oldman in Berlin and I feel it, the burden, the betrayal, and the heart .... the heart that makes the whole series so great... thanks, Apple, for bringing Mick and Jackson to us ...
Secret Hours
3
By Hook45612
Good story. Better if half as long. Too many useless words, sentences, paragraphs, pages. Maybe the author gets paid by the number of words??
For fans of the Slow Horses
5
By kid lex
A nice standalone story that fills in some background of certain characters but the reader may not be sure which ones for a bit. Took a while to get moving but we’ll worth it.