Books: The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (2023)

“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.

Books: Clown Town (Slough House #9) By Mick Herron (2025)

“Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren’t much better than clowns.” Or so David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they’ve fallen on hard times—as River Cartwright is about to learn the hard way. David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the books is missing. Or perhaps it never existed. River, once a “slow horse” of Slough House, MI5’s outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, has some time to kill while awaiting medical clearance to return to work, and starts investigating the secrets of his grandfather’s library. Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles laid bare the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme. All she needs is the right dupe to get caught holding the bag. Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all make it home, there’ll be a reckoning.” 

More than once, I’ve felt that Jackson Lamb’s battle with Diana Taverner resembles the fight between the Doctor and the Master in DOCTOR WHO. Jackson is not a Doctor we would be allowed to have (though it comes close with the early episodes of Peter Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor), but Taverner comes close to the Master, the one played by Roger Delgado in the Third Doctor days (and Herron has made many references to that BBC series in his books). It always struck me that Delgado’s Master was perfect manipulator of other people (and other aliens). He rarely (if ever) actually killed anyone –he had his hypnotized believers to do that, so there was always plausible deniability. Here Diana uses other people, manipulates both River and Sid, and four retired joes from the late 1980s/early 90s (who Lamb calls The Thursday Murder club at one point) to eliminate Peter Judd, who has been a thorn in the side of Taverner for several books and holds a secret that could dismantle everything she’s done since assuming the First Desk. And Diana –Lady Di- loves power and the creature comforts that come with it to have Judd ruin everything she has worked hard for. 

She may be evil, but she isn’t dumb. 

And Lamb, who misses nothing, sees things too clearly (though sometimes after things have shifted into play. 

Clown Town is a return to form, though I’ve liked all the books. The final third is a runaway train with Herron's ability to combine action, farce, tragedy (we lose another joe) and taking on politics (though clearly made up here, it does resembles real life politic too well). As I noted, Lamb could be a Doctor if the BBC really let the character be more realistic and less fantasy. Because it would be interesting to see what this Time Lord would do when pushed into a corner, with a companions (or Lamb’s joes) put in the position that Taverner put both Sid and River.
 

Books: Standing By the Wall (Slough House 8.5) by Mick Herron (2022)

“Roddy Ho is used to being the one the slow horses turn to when they need miracles performed, and he’s always been Jackson Lamb’s Number Two.  So when Lamb has a photograph that needs doctoring, it’s Ho he entrusts with the task.  Christmas is a time for memories, but Lamb doesn’t do memories – or so he says.  But what is it about the photo that makes him want to alter it?  How would the slow horses cope if Roddy Ho did not exist?  And most importantly of all, are the team having Christmas drinks, and if so, where? 

Standing by the Wall is (currently) the last novella that Slough House creator Mick Herron has written. Here we see Roddy Ho, the teams punching bag (99.0% deserved) of weirdness and (in Ho’s mind), Jackson Lamb’s Number Two, the Q to this small clown car of slow horses, the apparent lynchpin for Slough Houses entire “success”, demanded by Lamb to alter a photograph of three people. Basically remove the center figure. Who that person is –that’s not revealed- but the one on the left is a much younger Jackson Lamb and the other Molly Dornan, the Park’s archivist and –perhaps- Lamb’s only friend. 

The other part is a setup for the return of River Cartwright, who was apparently left for dead at the end of book seven. We learn that River was dosed with novichok, a family of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union and Russia between 1971 and 1993. He’s still has a few weeks left before returning to duty, but because it was Christmas, he felt this was a good chance to see his friends and meet the newest recruit, Ashley. But it’s clear he has some reservations here, mostly because his relationship with Sid has grown. 

There is also, apparently a reference to Operation Monochrome, which appears to be link to his stand-alone spy thriller Secret Hours. 

Otherwise, Lamb is Lamb and it’ll be interesting if this picture will tie into a later novel. But it also serves as another glimpse into Lamb’s murky past. 

Which bring me to the short story Last Dead Letter (which is set just after David Cartwright’s funeral in the novel Joe Country). Here is another glimpse into Lamb’s past. 

”Molly Dornan is there waiting to extract her pound of flesh from Jackson Lamb for an earlier favor. In this case, it’s learning the truth to a story Dornan has found in her precious archives. She’s put most of the pieces together but needs Lamb for the last bits of the puzzle. Molly enjoys closing off those unknown loops in her files wherever possible. The tale she tells is of “Dominic Cross”, an agent runner in Berlin, he’s a little crooked and drinks too much but always looks after his joes. Cross is a veteran of the spy game, but been in Berlin too long. He makes the misjudgment that many spies seem to make – he falls in love. When the Stasi opposition finds a way to turn this against him the question becomes whether he can find a way out of the devil’s choice he’s been given. Does he choose the life of his lover or his joe?” 

For a short story, the Last Dead Letter gives us a lot of information to parse through. Here Herron creates a pretty good atmosphere of Cold War Berlin and as you read, you get a sense that this Cross is really Lamb (but while the whole series is just a variation on themes presented before, I had hoped that this was one trope Herron would avoid – the British spy who falls for the German spy). And I can guess this was Herron’s attempt at giving his long-time readers, who are eager to learn of more of Lamb’s life before Slough House, a reason to read the tale. But there is a twist, as always, and we learn really nothing more beyond the fact that even some forty years earlier, Cross called his watcher The Shit.  

Like all the novellas and this short story, they are not necessary reads. But for those completists out there, these tales are like bits of candy in small packages, but sometimes, usually at the end, they turn tart.

Books: Bad Actors (Slough House #8) by Mick Herron (2022)

“A governmental think-tank, whose remit is to curb the independence of the intelligence service, has lost one of its key members, and Claude Whelan—one-time head of MI5's Regent’s Park—is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to the Park itself, with Diana Taverner as chief suspect. Has Diana overplayed her hand at last? What’s her counterpart, Moscow’s First Desk, doing in London? And does Jackson Lamb know more than he’s telling? Over at Slough House, with Shirley Dander in rehab, Roddy Ho in dress rehearsal, and new recruit Ashley Khan turning up the heat, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation. There are bad actors everywhere, and they usually get their comeuppance before the credits roll. But politics is a dirty business, and in a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing are the norm, sometimes the good guys can find themselves outgunned.” 

For the eighth book in the Slough House/Slow Horses series, Herron mixes up the narrative structure of Bad Actors, and begins the story with a long flashback that starts two thirds into the tale. It begins with Oliver Nash meeting up with previous First Desk, Claude Wheelan. Nash wants a favor and Wheelan should have enough sense to steer clear, but convinces himself to look into the whereabouts of a missing associate of Anthony Sparrow (The PM {a jab at Boris Johnson} is seen as a useless figurehead, and it appears the government is really being run by this manipulative aide and all around sleazebag {another jab at Dominic Cummings}). Dr. Sophia de Greer is a superforecaster upon whom Sparrow relies. But she's been AWOL for several days. Sparrow points fingers at Diana Taverner, the First Desk of the Secret Service. Because it becomes clear Sparrow's real objective is to collect all branches of government under his direct control by any means. Something Lady Di does not want. 

Bad Actors is another complex tale of spies vs. spies, political absurdities, lies, and mischievous antics in governmental circles. As usual, though, there is also plenty of dark humor, some misdirection, mistaken identity, and manipulation. Jackson Lamb also calls in semi-retired John Bachelor (from the numerous novellas) to play a more central role than usual. And Herron also has great fun teasing us readers, making us wait until the very end to conclude a particular storyline from the last book. 

I’ve now caught up with the novels, and beside one novella yet to go, I’ll be waiting until next month for Clown Town, the ninth novel in this series. It means, as well, I’ll be buying my first hardcover, because I doubt I can wait until next summer to read it in paperback. And somewhere along the way, I’ll want to see the Apple+ TV show of these books. 

Books: Slough House (Slow Horses/Slough House #7) By Mick Herron (2021)

“A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless response from the government has pushed the Service's First Desk into mounting her own counter-offensive—but she's had to make a deal with the devil first. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything she's fought for. Meanwhile, still reeling from recent losses, the slow horses are worried they've been pushed further into the cold. Slough House has been wiped from Service records, and fatal accidents keep happening. No wonder Jackson Lamb's crew are feeling paranoid. But have they actually been targeted? With a new populist movement taking a grip on London's streets, and the old order ensuring that everything's for sale to the highest bidder, the world's an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass. But the slow horses aren't famed for making wise decisions. And with enemies on all sides, not even Jackson Lamb can keep his crew from harm.” 

Set only months after the events Joe Country, our slow horses find themselves erased from the Park’s intelligence record database, being followed regularly, while River discovers one the earliest slow horses still alive and hiding in his late grandfather’s house. Meanwhile, Peter Judd (turning very much into a Bond villain) continues to move the pawns on his game board that could put him 10 Down Street. Meanwhile, First Desk arch-manipulator Diana "Lady Di" Taverner finds herself in a bind and makes a strategic mistake that could cost her much more than she’s willing to pay. Then there is Jackson Lamb, who continues to know more than everyone else, trying to figure out why past and present slow horses are being targeted by, what turns out to be, Russian assassins. 

Slough House is another fast-paced tale playing out against the backdrop of British politics, much of it I don’t grasp, but I guess it sort of seemly plays out like our current political world in the US. The writing remains sharp, with witty and clever dialogue, and Lamb remains at his politically incorrect best. One thing I like, as I read this series,  is how the team sort of hates each (well, all of them really hate Roddy Ho, who Herron makes more funny and weirdly icky at the same time) but there is an undeniable feeling of loyalty to each other as well. 

Also while all the characters have continuing arcs, each book has sort of been self contained "episodes". But for the first time, Herron leaves us with a huge cliffhanger. While I have Bad Actors sitting on the shelf, along with another novella, I was going to read something else. Mostly because I reached a point where I’ve caught up with the series and that means waiting a year for book nine to released in paperback, or buy the hardcover when it’s released in September. I'm conflicted, but I think I need to start on that next.