This Is What Happened

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From CWA Gold Dagger winner Mick Herron comes a shocking, twisted novel of psychological suspense about one woman's attempt to be better than ordinary

Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in the huge city of London, with no family but an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the kind of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice.

Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to infiltrate the establishment and thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk.

Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero - if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.

©2018 Mick Herron (P)2018 Recorded Books

Not Herron’s usual characters

This is a fairly slim story, but Herron writes in his unique style, and the narrator does a lovely job

I enjoyed this book

It was different from the slough horse series, and yet entertaining. Not all of his books have to be the same. it’s nice to have his mind write some thing that is different and yet intriguing. I found the narrator superb.

Probably the best strategy book ever written

The lessons from this book are as useful today as they were when it was written.
Moreover, they are applicable to any organizational situation. You may think of today. 

Not his best work… not even close.

The story is a twisted variant of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wakefield, featuring a gullible woman, a megalomaniacal english as a second language instructor pretending to work for the security service (MI-5) and a long lost sister.

The only truly interesting part of the story happens at the very beginning, and the rest is of little consequence or interest.

Not his best

I’m a huge fan of the author but this was a disappointment . I’ll reread a Slow Horses to forget this one

Well written, but disappointing

I’m a huge Mick Herron fan. I’ve read all the books and enjoyed them immensely. However, this one fell pretty flat. His character development is wonderful, as always, but I found some of the themes banal and tedious.
If you’re a fan I think it’s worth a listen just because his writing is extraordinarily clever and thorough. But this book is definitely not in the same league as his other work.
The narration is excellent.

A pure delight!

Mick Herron is brilliant;I’ve enjoyed all of his Slough House books - this stand alone is equally enjoyable.
I try to listen to any books narrated by Steven Crossley,he’s awesome.

Unusual Spy Thriller

Twists and turns; imaginative without being fanciful. Intriguing female characters. Not quite a cozy, but not bloodcurdling either.

Different, but enjoyable.

"This is What Happened" is a slight departure for Herron, who typically writes slightly off-beat MI5 and Police/Detective Procedurals. It was appropriately darker in tone, without being gratuitous. I typically prefer a linear storyline, but Herron does an excellent job of using the Flashback Story to create interest, without becoming confusing. I found I correctly predicted the ending about half way through, but that did not bother me much.


Mick Herron is the first author that I have begun to read everything he has written; I find that I consistently enjoy most of his work. The calibre of writing is a notch above pulp writers. I think it is the "voice" with which his books are written that is the main reason I enjoy his writing so much. The language is casual, yet spirited and effortless. The stories are interesting, yet he manages to avoid (for the most part) the formulaic "feeling" that so many successful authors seem obliged to include in every successive novel.

The story was quite different than the audible description!

This just goes to show that the people at Audible, who write the title details, should actually at least skim the book! The story actually had almost nothing to do with MI5, Other than one character using it, fraudulently as their fake backstory. Other than that, I found the story quite compelling, though creepy.