The Secret Hours

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Herron's best writing yet, and that's saying a lot

This is superb. Easily as good as Le Carré, if Le Carré had a sense of humor. Not a "Slow Horses" novel, but this supplies much of the back story to Jackson Lamb and other key SH characters. Gerard Doyle's narration is excellent.

Author gets better and better

Slow Horses fans will love this superbly crafted peek into the past of two of the most compelling characters in the series. I sure did. Herron outdoes himself evoking post-wall Berlin, The framing structure of the origin tale is brilliantly conceived and written. Narrator is pitch and accent perfect as always. Can't get enough!

A bit hard to follow ( lists of characters) but fantastic!

There were a few too many chess pieces to follow in this one to make it my fav but I love this author !
A great story !

Better just read this one

This is a very good book with great narration, however, there are just too many moving parts (lots of characters, characters with multiple names, back and forth between multiple timeframes) for this to be fully enjoyable as an audiobook. Just too much to keep track of, so stick with a hardcopy!

Great performance, good story.

I absolutely love the slow horses stories and Jackson Lamb. This latest one gives more background into Molly Doran character and her history with Lamb. It does drag on a bit too much and needed more action and more Jackson lamb to make it a better book. Gerard Doyle is the business.

Smart, taut, & oh so gratifying

Mick Herron wields the narrative with precision, and the characters’ tangled stories are fully realized in language and emotion. What a treat for Slow Horses fans or anyone who loves a tale of spies, regrets, revenge.

Tangled webs, unwoven.

Very much in the vein of a LeCarré novel. As it builds to a powerful ending, many unanswered questions from the Slough House novels are answered, with expertly crafted tension.
Great read.

A must read for Slow Horses fans

So much fun to learn about incidents in the past and how it determined who characters are today. As always the writing is excellent and narration pitch perfect.

Tour ‘d Force

Great story development back story on characters already known and loved with a dash of social satire/criticism.

This just might be his best one yet

Of course it did not take long to figure out who was who, but that just made me look forward to getting some answers as to the past of those two characters. It’s always nice to get the backstory, especially when you’ve been waiting for it for a while.