Book Review: “The Secret Hours” by Mick Herron
Publication Date: September 2023
A third series of the wonderful drama, ‘Slow Horses’ in due on apple TV+ in September. This series is based on the ‘Slough House’ books and novellas by the author Mick Heron. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of these books with their dramatic, fast-paced plot lines, intriguing back-stories and side stories. And of course always populated with colourful, complex and engaging characters. The TV series does a admirable job in portraying these characters and recreating the stories on the small screen. I listened to the audio-book of the latest in the series, ‘The Secret Hours’, about a year ago and thought it would be timely to reproduce my NetGalley review here.
I am grateful to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
‘The Secret Hours’ is the latest novel by author Mick Herron. Although several of the characters have been encountered in the Slough House series, this new book is to a large extent a Jackson Lamb stand-alone novel. I enjoyed the Slough House series and throughly enjoyed this book, perhaps even more than the preceding ones.
The previous books do not need to be read to enjoy The Secret Hours, although they do add to the pleasure of re-visiting familiar characters, some in their younger days, in a different world. Mr Herron’s novellas also add some background richness to the characters and plots, in particular Standing by the Wall.
The setting is post-covid current day London and Dorset with a large part of the book also taking place in Berlin during the early 1990s. A present-day Government committee is revisiting ‘Monochrome’, an MI-5 operation in Berlin from 1994. As with the Slough House series, there are spooks, politicians, businessmen as well as ‘ordinary’ people going about their lives. These people, old and young, rich, powerful or ordinary are almost always compelling characters, well developed and portrayed.
The book builds the characters and plots slowly. Humdrum bureaucratic events in the present day are juxtaposed with events of sudden violence and action in Dorset. The plot gradually moves to Berlin in 1994 and the ‘Monochrome’ Operation. Mr Herron’s descriptions of locations, especially London and Berlin are wonderfully atmospheric. The language and descriptions are a pleasure to read and reread. They may be minor details and background descriptions, but they are gems of prose and add so much to his characters, locations and events. His dry-humour also provokes an occasional chuckle or smile. Wonderful stuff.
The main plots are intertwined, complicated and it is not obvious where they are going. Slowly they come together as events, past and present, are described. The reappearance of familiar characters is such a delight. Some are smallish cameos, others play a much larger role. All are appealing and I sincerely hope Mr Herron allows us to revisit them in the future. Both the older, familiar characters as well as the newer, younger ones.
Encountering Jackson Lamb in his Berlin days is perhaps the heart of this book. He is in his element of course, in the field, and is obviously the man we have come to know in Slough House. But Mr Herron has fleshed out this man in his younger days, adding layers to his persona. Lamb is a more thoughtful and nuanced person; a more complex character.
My one, small disappointment is related to Mr Herron’s thinly disguised portrayals of political figures, some of whom seem easy to identify given the book is partially set in the very recent past. These governing politicians and senior government advisors are single dimension characters, cliches, almost cartoonish, always the bad guys, with no redeeming characteristics. Mr Herron could do better.
In closing, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A wonderful addition to Mr Herron’s body of work. The plot is complicated, complex and ultimately satisfying. The characters are well developed and engaging, with all their strengths and weaknesses. This is probably my favourite Mick Herron book to date; I wish him all the very best with the publication. I eagerly look forward to more from this author.
One further comment: I was provided with the audio-version of The Secret Hours. I’m usually a reader of text but was pleasantly surprised to listen to this book. The voice was soothing while also being evocative of the characters, both male and female, British and European. The audio-version added to my enjoyment of this wonderful book.