“Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn. Now the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust—and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away by the pounding London rain. Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin—an operation that ended in tragedy and scandal, whose cover-up has rewritten thirty years of Service history.”
The plot of this book starts in the present, though about two years before Bad Actors (it is also set in 1994, but we’ll get to that later). Also, in the novella Standing by the Wall (which hinted at the back stories of Jackson Lamb and Molly Doran in Berlin circa 1994), the readers learn about Operation Monochrome inquiry, and in The Secret Hours we learn more of the story behind said inquiry.
But as noted, this isn’t as simple as it sounds, as Fleet’s and Kyle’s progress has been blocked at every turn (mostly by the First Desk, who is familiar character longtime Herron readers know). That is until a person unknown literately drops another secret file, called OTIS, into Kyle’s lap (or grocery cart). OTIS turns out to be a spy operation in Berlin, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Monochrome panel is beginning to interview the first OTIS witness –one Alison North who was a new spy back in 1994 and who is sent by David Cartwright to learn about a joe named Brimsley Miles -when Monochrome is shut down. It's clear the government does not want OTIS to become public knowledge. Nevertheless, Griselda and Malcolm fabricate a loophole so they can hear the witness's whole story, which is riveting.
The Secret Hours is billed as a stand-alone story. And it does work as a stand-alone, but those familiar with the Slough House series will appreciate it all the more. So it can be either an astounding entry point for new readers who can then go on and read the Slough House tales (so spoilers, I guess) or a reward for long-time readers as Herron finally delivers some backstory on some major players within the Slough House universe.
It’s more dark than main series, but it’s still filled with some of Herron’s trademark snark and poignancy we’ve all come to accept. His look at politics and spies, the tradecraft of both, is frighteningly realistic, the more he goes on:
“It’s fiddling while the city burns, isn’t? Look at Green Shoots…I mean, we barley know which way we should be facing. Looking under stones for the next bomb factory, or over our shoulders for whichever Downing Street heavyweight you’ve –we’ve- pissed off.”
“It’s not the colour of the money, though is it? it’s handling over control of services to people who shouldn’t have it.”
Also, in case ever need to make a fast getaway, here are the contents of a flight kit: a passport with a fake name; a grand in cash; two prepaid credit cards worth 5,000 Euros; one change of clothing; a basic toiletries kit that includes hair dye and tinted contact lenses; and a pair of insoles that will alter your gait enough to fool a camera.
