Author: Mick Herron
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa
If you’ve ever wondered, yes, booksellers are human – we fall into reading slumps too. Lately I just haven’t been as motivated to pick up a book or stick with one. So, I turned to my tried-and-true remedy to break out of the rut: a spy thriller. The Secret Hours, by author Mick Herron, is out this month in paperback and is part-standalone, part-prequel in the Slough House series. While it doesn’t have the short, snappy chapters that I had in mind, the opening scene is certainly a thrilling enough hook and the deeply dry humor kept me going throughout.
The Secret Hours has two timelines, one of present day MI5 in Britain and one of Berlin shortly after the Wall came down. In the first, two civil servants have been tasked with Monochrome, an inquiry to find any misconduct in the Secret Service’s history. The mission seems to be going nowhere at all until someone anonymously leaks an important case file. When a witness is called to testify, she recounts what happened in Berlin all those years ago, when an agent’s cover was blown and an operation went very wrong.
In typical fashion, this spy thriller is full of code names and secret identities and falsified records. I felt a little lost for much of the book, meeting all the different characters but having no clue how they were connected. Readers’ patience will be rewarded by the end, though, because it’s brilliant when all the pieces come together. Herron has created such a sharp, entertaining world with the most memorable characters, and I’m really excited now to go back and start the series from the beginning.
Visit us in Sunset Plaza or call 580-297-5089 to get your copy of The Secret Hours today!
