The Secret Hours

Splendid

The Spectator books of the year

I devoured The Secret Hours in one sitting

The Spectator books of the year

The Secret Hours is bliss

TLS books of the year

The novel I enjoyed most was The Secret Hours by Mick Herron . . . it is funny, sharply observed and almost uniquely acute and sensitive in its consideration of something most novelists seem to regard with a lofty uninterest: the world of work

TLS books of the year

This is a more sober work than Herron's comical Slough House novels but even at his most serious he provides more good gags than you'll find in the entire Christmas TV comedy schedule

Daily Mirror crime and thrillers highlight

A deliciously cynical comedy of manners that is probably Herron's most mature spy novel to date

Irish Times best crime fiction of 2023

Mick Herron's The Secret Hours was another highlight, and looks certain to bring more awards to the author's growing collection

Sunday Express crime and thriller highlights 2023

2023 was a vintage year for crime with too many good books to mention but among many others I loved . . . Mick Herron's The Secret Hours

Nation Cymru picks of 2023

Not only the finest writer of espionage fiction we have, Mick Herron is also one of the funniest and his latest, The Secret Hours, is proof of both. While not strictly speaking a Slough House novel, it's part of that universe and, for fans of Jackson Lamb (and who isn't?), it's both a thrilling and poignant origin story. Herron is simply incapable of writing a bad book and this is one of his very best

Daily Express books of the year

The Secret Hours is a genesis story for fans of Mick Herron's Slow Horses series. All his trademarks are here: layered prose, a deftly unravelled plot, lashings of caustic wit, and a cast of morally-compromised yet ultimately sympathetic characters

Daily Express books of the year

This might just be Mick Herron's best book - elegant prose, machine-tooled plot, mixing tension with humour. Pure class

Ian Rankin

I doubt I'll read a more enjoyable novel all year. The Secret Hours has it all: thrilling action scenes, crackling dialogue, characters to infuriate and beguile, and a neatly intricate plot. And through it all cuts Herron's acerbic wit, its effect heightened by the glimpses he allows us, from time to time, from his world to ours

Paula Hawkins, author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Great Britain has a long, rich history of how-it-really-works espionage fiction, and Mick Herron - stealthy as a secret agent - has written himself to the very top of the list. If you haven't already been recruited, start with The Secret Hours - all Herron's trademark strengths are here: tension, intrigue, observation, humour, absurdity . . . and pitch-perfect prose

Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels

For a novel about a government inquiry called Monochrome, nothing is black and white in The Secret Hours by Mick Herron. Stunningly plotted and written, this masterclass in intrigue is brimming with tension and paranoid energy. A meaty, breathe-if-you-dare spy thriller with teeth, heart and a sense of humour. An absolute addiction of a read

Janice Hallett, author of THE APPEAL

The Secret Hours is wonderful. It's Mick Herron at his best, taking us into a dark world where there is high action, a spinning moral compass, and hidden motives on every page. And, oh, yes, the fun - Herron's greatest talent may be the examination of serious things with a perfectly wry sense of humour

Michael Connelly, author of DESERT STAR

A fantastic book that kept me up all night. Unputdownable!

Philippa Perry, author of THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READ

A deft knockout of a story, with an arc of history, written with humour and style. Mick Herron is one of the best writers of spy fiction working today

Martin Cruz Smith, author of GORKY PARK

Positively pulses with misdirection, deception and deep truths. Mick Herron is a genius

Sarah Hilary, author of BLACK THORN

Mick Herron is not just one of the best spy writers working today, but one of our best writers

Charlotte Philby, author of EDITH AND KIM

The gold standard in intelligent, absorbing storytelling

Simon Mason, author of MISSING PERSON: ALICE, Daily Express Books of the Year 2024 pick

Herron has become something of a laureate of decrepitude

Guardian

[Mick Herron] proves himself a modern rival to Ian Fleming and John Le Carré . . . This satire-flecked thriller should establish Herron as an institution

Sunday Times

[A] terrific new novel . . . Herron's traditional tradecraft is on show - the Blackadderesque relish of words, the spy-like manipulation of the reader, the understanding of how the English fend off the serious with humour

The Times

Herron is a subtle writer who offers a great deal, including psychological insights that stay with you long after the clever plot is complete

Literary Review

A fascinating insight into the machinations of the secret service and the witty writing lifts it above the average thriller

Good Housekeeping

Never has a work of popular fiction delighted me more . . . The Secret Hours will become not so much a novel as a machine for delivering pleasure

The Spectator

I'll be amazed if I read a better book this year. Tense and darkly comic, with razor-sharp prose that revels in the absurdity of modern-day Britain, The Secret Hours achieves the seemingly impossible by improving on the Slough House series

Daily Express

Herron keeps up his gravity-defying balancing act: belly-laugh spy spoof on one side, elegiac state-of-the-nation satire on the other, with a thin, taut line of polished prose between

Financial Times

The Secret Hours has all of Herron's tight plotting and characteristically low-key humour . . . It's an excellent standalone, but fans of his Slough House books would do well to pick it up too

Observer

Mick Herron is one of the beadiest satirists of our times . . . one of his best books yet

Daily Telegraph

Twisty, intriguing fun

The i

A very clever and often darkly funny tale of espionage . . . A thoroughly enjoyable spy romp

Radio Times

With all the contemporary wit and humour that fans have come to love, as well as his deeply flawed and believable characters, Herron weaves another unputdownable tale as he follows two civil servants tasked with investigating misconduct in the British secret service. A perfect cat-and-mouse chase from this very modern master of the espionage thriller. It's easy to see why Herron is often called the heir to John Le Carré

Gloss

Blisteringly exciting and darkly funny

Radio Times

Safe to say Herron's trademark humour is woven in throughout . . . Big issues come under the spotlight - who owns your data, identity, loyalty, truth and realpolitik, but all the characters feel human and individual. Though it's described as a standalone and can easily be read as such, lovers of the Slough House series will pick up on some familiar characters being illuminated in new ways

Aberdeen Journal

This is a stand-alone thriller of extreme brilliance (obviously), but it also works as a deeply satisfying origin story for aspects of the existing books

Sunday Times

I can't think of many things more pleasurable than hunkering down with Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, capped off with this year's deeply satisfying The Secret Hours . . . I like these better than John le Carré, which is saying something

Sunday Times my favourite books to curl up with at Christmas

Everything you want from a Herron thriller - a witty relish for words, a feel for how institutions work (or rather don't work) and brutal character sketches

The Times, Best Paperback Novels of the Year 2024 pick

A master of espionage fiction and a treat to read

Observer

Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer

Guardian, What We're Reading

Herron steps away from his Slow Horses, but not the world of espionage, for this thriller . . . offering a revealing sidelight into the pre-history of Slough House. More sombre than usual but still compelling

Mail on Sunday

Wryly humorous in places, well written and full of tension

Irish Examiner

Nobody does disenchanted spies quite like Mick Herron, and in the standalone thriller The Secret Hours, read by the always impressive Sean Barrett, he is on top form. Fans of the Slough House series will be delighted by this tale of a cold war mission in Berlin gone wrong . . . A rich seam of disillusion is baked into Barrett's rendition; you can almost see the anonymous corridors of power shutting doors in the investigators' faces

Financial Times

[A] masterly novel . . . Set in a political landscape populated with vividly familiar figures, Herron's novel combines an elegantly twisty plot with pitch-black comedy

Irish Daily Mail

Superbly, breathtakingly, well-plotted

Bookseller

Fans of the Slough House series will rejoice at this standalone thriller, once again set in a world of espionage, from which all glamour is largely expunged . . . Beginning with a breathlessly exciting pursuit, and moving on to a separate timeline set in post-reunification Berlin, the author's mordant wit is finely deployed on every page - just one of the familiar elements that will delight readers. Watch out for a terrific twist

Bookseller

Herron has been compared to John le Carré for the intricacy of his plotting and the thoroughness of his world building, though the two men differ greatly in tone and in focus. He has also been compared to Charles Dickens and P.G. Wodehouse for his lacerating descriptions and delight in the absurd . . . The Secret Hours is classic Herron, featuring mordant humour, bureaucratic power plays, underappreciated functionaries, bravura action sequences and at least one unexpected casualty

New York Times

Herron's narrative moves with ease between present and past, England and Germany, action and satire

Dow Jones ‘Mysteries’

I'm going to read it again, out of sheer admiration for its plotting

Tablet

[An] atmosphere full of bureaucratic chicanery, obfuscation and paranoia, all accompanied by a leavening of cynicism and wry humour. For those who enjoy the machinations of the intelligence services it makes for another entertaining read

Arbuturian