The Secret Hours

Max Janacek was drifting off to sleep when the beginnings of an assault on his house roused him into action. Max gets the drop on his assailants and manages to evade capture. Meanwhile, British Intelligence is under scrutiny and an investigation dubbed “Monochrome” has been initiated at the Prime Minister’s behest. Griselda Fleet has been assigned the thankless task of holding hearings into the operations of numerous agencies.

The hearings yield little beyond gossip and rumor, while the spy groups withhold certain information to stifle the query, but events escalate when one of the investigating committee members receives secret intel alluding to an intelligence operation from the 1990s. The operation relates to post-Cold-War Berlin and a counterintelligence operation. Events of the past and present are coalescing into a potential maelstrom.

The Secret Hours is the latest cerebral espionage thriller from the mind of the gifted Mick Herron. The dangers of the cloak-and-dagger world are cleverly captured by Herron, often hidden behind the monotony of routine bureaucratic operations. Herron has his hand firmly on the pulse of the reader as he knows how to draw out the suspense and capture their attention when least expected. A+ effort.