The Secret Hours #MickHerron #TheSecretHours

By Mick Herron https://www.mickherron.com/

Narrated by Gerard Doyle

Published by print – Soho Crime https://sohopress.com/soho-crime/ @soho_press and Baskerville (an imprint of John Murray Press) https://www.johnmurraypress.co.uk/landing-page/baskerville-imprint/@BaskervilleJMP , audio – Recorded Books https://rbmediaglobal.com/recorded-books/ @recordedbooks

384 pages (12 hours 45 minutes) ISBN 9798889567073

Publication date 12 September 2023

I was allowed access to an audio review copy on Net Galley https://www.netgalley.com/ @NetGalley.  Thanks to the Author and Publisher for organising this.

The Cover

Berlin (I think) cityscape at night. A bit meh for me, neither good nor bad, though no doubt some will love it. Won’t affect sales!

From the blurb

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 narration

The Slough House series is narrated by the masterful Sean Barrett, so this is a departure, and some audio listeners don’t like change. 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.

My thoughts

This is billed as a standalone novel, but fans of the Slough House/Slow Horses series need not worry, it comes from the same stable and could well be its brother albeit a much older one. Thoroughbreds both. ‘The Park’ still features prominently and there is much to be familiar with; London Rules, Joes, ‘the dogs’, ‘milkmen’ and analysts.

The beginning is memorable for the part played by a dead badger, that retired spook Max Janáček almost stumbles over as he flees for his life. This sort of sets the tone for the novel, a mixture of espionage, slightly bizarre incidents and plenty of laughs on the way, unless you are a badger.

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. It is here that the reviewer must tread carefully, the story itself is wonderful on its own, but the cherry on the Bakewell Tart are the moments of realisation, and there are quite a few, that will delight the familiar reader. The first of which occurred to me early in the story when there is a brief cameo in 1994 of a young female officer at Regents Park is mentioned, called Dianna, hence force my lips are sealed.

The activity in Berlin is during the period when Charles Partner was in charge and betraying secrets to the Russians. His righthand man was of course David Cartwright, River Cartwright’s worshipped grandfather, the true power behind the throne and more devious than Machiavelli. There are schemes within schemes and though not quite a prequel it answers some of the questions that may have been nagging readers of the Slough House series. It is beautifully summed up by Brinsley Miles, in espionage eventually everyone is betrayed.

The plot has complexity, is skilfully crafted and beautifully executed as all the disparate parts come together in the final quarter. The final set-piece is cleverly conceived and coldly executed, despite all the wonderful humour there is a spine of steel running through these stories.

The characters are beautifully formed, often a little larger than life but certainly never boring. They are put into entertaining situations and even the ‘crap’ fights scenes that proved the action possesses a charm all their own. The unnamed Prime Minister is mendacious, feckless and reckless, so there are no prizes for guess who he is modelled on. The businessmen who are trying to skim off profits from the security services are disturbingly realistic, hopefully the real life ‘first desk’ will be their match. Whilst over in Berlin the men (and women) at the sharp end of intelligence work are a wonderful combination of secrets, deceit and sleaze. There are the dodgy sellers of secrets, like Dickie Bow (yes, I know) and ex Stasi men with ears to the ground. The station chief Robin Bruce is mid breakdown following affairs of the heart, which is convenient for Brinsley Miles a former Joe who by night trawls the strip clubs for secrets and daytime makes dubious expense claims.

The Secret Hours is simply a sublime amalgam of espionage writing of the highest quality and bawdy comedy that is beautifully balanced between the two. Once again, like an Olympic high jumper Mick Herron raises his own bar again.

The Secret Hours can be purchased via Amazon here

The Author

Mick Herron is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in over 20 languages, and are the basis of a major TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zoë Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction and This is What Happened. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Source: John Murray Press website

The narrator

Mr. Doyle was born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England. He has had an extensive career in British repertory theatre, appeared in the gritty musical “The Hired Man” in London’s West End and toured internationally with the English Shakespeare Company. He appeared in a number of British and American television series and on Broadway. Mr. Doyle lives with his wife and two children in Sag Harbor.

Mr. Doyle’s career in audio books began in 2000 when he was understudying a role on Broadway and his agent called to say that Recorded Books was looking for an Irish voice. Doyle agreed — though he didn’t know much about audio books.

“No matter,” he thought, “I can do that — I’m an Irishman.”

He won the AudioFile Earphones award for his reading of the wonderful Roddy Doyle book, “A Star Called Henry.” In 2008, Doyle was named a Best Voice in young adult fiction. He reads adult, young adult and children’s books as well as literary fiction, mysteries, humor, adventure and lots of fantasy.

Doyle has recorded all 14 of Adrian McKinty’s novels. Mr. McKinty, who lives in Australia, is known primarily as an Irish crime writer and has wonderful characters with strange voices. Doyle has researched various languages and dialects for the McKinty books, including Shelta, an obscure Irish language. When Doyle asked McKinty about the dialect, he responded that he had no idea, and Gerard eventually found an Irish professor who spoke it and worked on his narration via Skype.

Mr. Doyle is also known for Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance Cycle” series, of which the first title was “Eragon.” In “Eragon,” a main character is a dragon — what does a dragon sound like? As more titles were added to the series, more dragons were added, needing new dragon voices. At some point, to be mischievous, the author starting giving Mr. Doyle clues in the books, by describing what the dragons’ voices sounded like. 

Source: Goodreads profile