The Secret Hours - Mick Herron

As entertaining and brilliant as the Slough House series with Jackson Lamb and his crew might be, as changeable as the unfortunate personnel might be when one or another gets knocked off in this dangerous world of spying, Mick Herron's side-related standalone works often enlarge the scope in a thrilling way. The Secret Hours is not billed as a Slough House book then, but that's in name only. It still operates in the same world of spooks, with more of a focus on the Regent's Park, the headquarters of the Secret Service, and there are quite a few familiar faces appearing - often when you least expect. It's also a world that is not so far removed from our own absurd world, in that questionable area where politics and intelligence services collide.

Collide is exactly what they all do when a certain PM with liquidity problems and a casual attitude towards the truth, perhaps guided or encouraged by his repugnant special advisor, 'head gnome' Andrew Sparrow, has suggested setting up a committee to investigate the activities of the Secret Service. All in the interests of openness, transparency and accountability of course. Since those have never been words associated with the policy of Regent's Park and their record keeping, it surprisingly doesn't have First Desk too concerned. It's virtually certain that the PM - "a walking non-disclosure agreement" - is unlikely to still be in office by the time any inquiry finishes, and, with First Desk confident enough to be able to give the officials the runaround, there's not much to be worried about. There is however a more serious existential threat to the Park in the form of creeping privatisation.

And indeed that remains the case two years later when the PM has been removed and it's clear that the Monochrome investigation isn't going anywhere, exactly as she intended. First Desk is a little disconcerted then (disconcerted might not be the right word - coolly inclined towards murder perhaps) when she finds out that, despite her best efforts to remove any possibility of them having access to any potentially compromising files, someone has slipped an old file their way, one that looks back historically to Berlin in 1994. A significant proportion of The Secret Hours then is the story related to committee by an agent posted there about an incident that occurred in the aftermath of the fall of the Wall, in a city still known as Spook Central.

The Secret Hours is not a Slough House novel strictly speaking - it can't be a proper one without Roddy Ho strutting his stuff - but it's an essential one nonetheless in that it provides some back history to the mysterious past of 'Brindley Miles'. Some of the names have been changed, but there are a few familiar faces here and Miles can be identified fairly quickly from his crude manner and brutal one-liner put-downs. Ever wonder what Jackson Lamb did to get exiled to Slough House? Course you did. What where the highly positioned agents Charles Partner and David Cartwright really up to back then? Well, here you will find all the answers to that, how scores are settled (then and now) with judicious application of the London Rules. And there a few more surprises revealed than you are expecting, tying up a lot of loose ends and mysteries in the history of the Slough House series very neatly indeed.

I've complained (well not complained, more observed) that it's an occupational hazard in this genre that means Herron can sometimes struggle to keep up with current real-world events and crises between writing and publication, not to mention a rapidly changing roster of PMs. Not so here, or at least not until further unexpected events undoubtedly take place between my reading an advance copy in July and its publication in September (good effort nonetheless timing this during parliamentary summer recess). All the buzzwords relating to parliamentary inquiries 'out-sourcing' and 'streamlining', all the political hot topics of recent times in the UK and the world are all mentioned in passing, along with the obvious political manoeuvring that takes place.

It might not strictly be a Slough House novel, but it's clearly related and connects many elements from those books together. It's also easily as good as the last one (Bad Actors), which means it's up there with Herron's best. As ever in this world, the writing is wonderful, beautifully descriptive, insightful and observant of the political arena and the motivations of people who mix in these circles, Herron employing his usual wit and humour with inventive turns of phrase, drawing you into the world of covert operations and ambiguous motivations that exist within the labyrinthine obscurantist workings and coverups of officialdom. If it sometimes feels too absurd to be true, take a look at the activities of the MPs of the current government and their handling of official government inquiries, and well... the only conclusion you can come to is that The Secret Hours is at least brings about more satisfying conclusions to its investigations.

Reading notes: The Secret Hours by Mick Herron, a kind of historical background Slough House novel, is published by John Murray/Baskerville on the 14th September 2023. Reviewed from an advance review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.