The Secret Hours

De: Mick Herron

Narrado por: Gerard Doyle

A gripping standalone spy thriller from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Slow Horses, with a riveting reveal about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin—an absolute must-listen for Slough House fans.

New from the author 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 “to investigate historical over-reaching.” 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.

©2023 Mick Herron (P)2023 Recorded Books

Just about perfect

Although the description calls this book a standalone, please don’t read it if you’re planning on reading or haven’t finished the Slough House series. It’s both a prequel and a summation, elegantly written and superbly narrated.

As always, fantastic!

Fills in much of the Berlin backstory in fascinating detail. And fabulously written, with details unfolding in overlapping and time-swapping stories.

Mick Herron’s best

The intrigue is super. Origin story is superb. So many twists and turns. Unbelievable how Herron knit it all together over 30 years.

Narration is some of the best in the industry.

Need more like this!

Incredible

Mick Herron dazzles again with a remarkable spy tale that has no right to be this funny.

Gerard Doyle is one of the best narrators to ever do it. This performance was almost 13 hours and I wished it continued for 13 more.

So good!

I love how the story slowly reveals itself as backstory to earlier Slough House books, and also how the narrator is able to

Another winner

Fills in some backstory. May seem slow at first, but stay with it because it gets very, very good.

Excellent

A MUST read for any Slough House fan. Superb tale of the past that sheds lots of light on beloved characters!

Slow roast to service

It took a bit to be engaged, but so worth the set up. Nice mix of a truly cynical view of the world, with a begrudging affection for the occasional good motivation, which doggedly pursues as close to a good ending as any cynic might be capable of imagining. It’s a slow roasted side of meat, delivered to the table in the last minutes, not ready for consumption a moment sooner.

Outstanding build-up and clever payoff

This novel starts slow—now, after finishing, apparently by design—and builds to an wonderfully clever twist and reveal. Herron’s characters and dialogue are a delight and his plot here is fun.

OK for a spy novel

Not much happens, I almost quit this book about three different times. It's written well, the details are really good and they help build the story. But NOTHING HAPPENS. The story flips back and forth between the past and present, which I typically like. But the setup just doesn't measure up to the final delivery - I'm left underwhelmed. Yes, I like more action in my spy novels and this is all about interpersonal relationships and how they play out way in the future. The details are present, but I think a bit overly done. The finish was unsatisfying to me; forced and too quickly finished - I would have liked to seen more detail in that section and a little less devoted to the buildup. The narrator was well suited - boring British for a fairly slow story. Overall, I'm just not interested in further development of the characters or story line.