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23 Jan

‘The Secret Hours’ by Mick Herron – Spy vs. Spy

Posted January 23, 2024 by Anokatony in Book Reviews. Tagged: .

 

‘The Secret Hours’ by Mick Herron    (2023) – 365 pages

 

I suppose the death of John le Carre created a vacuum in the writing of spy fiction that someone will have to fill. One of the likelier candidates to fill this spy vacuum is Mick Herron who has written several novels, one from which the television series “Slow Horses” was adapted.

Mick Herron’s latest work ‘The Secret Hours’, which I have just read, is a stand-alone spy thriller.

Having spent much of my work career in several seemingly unending bureaucracies, I much appreciated Mick Herron’s arch cynical humor about the ultimate bureaucracy, the M15 British Intelligence Agency.

A new inquiry, the Monochrome Inquiry, is investigating the historical overreach by the British Intelligence Service. The two main investigators are Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, both of whom come to believe that they have been named to the inquiry only so the Service can get rid of them. There are also two others named to the inquiry.

“Guy Fielding and John Moore, back-benchers both, were experienced committee sitters, happy to make up the numbers whenever warm buttocks were required on padded seats, provided the padding also applied to the expense accounts.”

Griselda Fleet is an old hand on these type of inquiries.

“She’d long been aware, for example, that those who have garnered more power than wise minds would have allotted them tend to think themselves above the reach of the law.”

At first, the progress of the Monochrome panel is very slow and halting. This gives author Mick Herron an opportunity to regale us with his humor regarding bureaucracies. We get a hilarious account of how bureaucracy actually works or doesn’t work, how the members of a bureaucracy achieve their goals or don’t achieve their goals.

“This was Westminster, and London Rules were in play, which – right below Never apologize, never explain – stated Never admit you’ve made a mistake.”

Along the way, we get lots of facetious wisdom.

“And then there were the endless complications of joining an organization whose watchword was secrecy, even if its prevailing ethos was obfuscation.”

We also get insights into the characters of people they meet.

“Somewhere inside that petulant, uptight young man was an arrogant asshole trying to get out.”

A man named Anthony Sparrow is described as “a man who wouldn’t need to be hungry to grind your dog into sausages”.

Later, the pace of the story speeds up to breakneck speed as all good spy stories must. The action moves to Berlin, and the inquiry pursues agency secrets from the time when the Berlin Wall came down.

‘The Secret Hours’ is a very humorous look at a vast bureaucracy that winds up with an engaging spy story.

 

Grade :    A

 

14 responses to this post.

  1. Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead's avatar

    Posted by Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on January 23, 2024 at 10:16 PM

    Hi Tony! I was particularly interested in your review as I’m quite the fan of Mick Herron’s “Slow Horses” series, in both the video form and the books (Surprise! The books are better IMO). I’ve resisted Herron’s other work, however. I think your review changed that, at least with respect to The Secret Hours, which is now on my TBR.
    BTW I, too, have spent a great deal of time in bureaucracies of one type or another; Mick Herron’s perspective on them is all too accurate!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Anokatony's avatar

      Posted by Anokatony on January 24, 2024 at 2:11 AM

      Hi Janakay,
      Since we don’t have Apple TV, I can’t watch “Slow Horses”. I would like to. As you also have discovered, Mick Herron is very funny writing about bureaucrats and bureaucracies. I definitely want to read more of his work Maybe I’ll read ‘Slow Horses’ next.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead's avatar

    Posted by Janakay | YouMightAsWellRead on January 24, 2024 at 4:46 PM

    The series is definitely fun, but the main thing(s) are the books themselves! I’ve read the whole series twice, so I obviously like them, although, as with many series, I felt it became a bit weaker about the midway point (still good, however). Herron is just so funny, so realistic about human behavior and so very cynical about motivation, especially the motivation of those running the world! He also did some novellas that tie into the Slow House series, but with minor characters taking the lead roles (I think Amazon published them as singles; eventually they ended up (I think) as a collection, along with some of Herron’s other writings)

    Liked by 1 person

    • Anokatony's avatar

      Posted by Anokatony on January 24, 2024 at 5:41 PM

      I did not realize that ‘Slow Horses’ was such a big thing. In fact I never heard of it until I read the author’s bio in ‘The Secret Hours’.
      I also hadn’t realized that Mick Herron was so prolific.
      This is definitely a good time to be cynical about those running the world and those attempting to run the world. :)

      Liked by 1 person

  3. jimbrownnyusa's avatar

    Posted by jimbrownnyusa on January 24, 2024 at 11:41 PM

    Mick Herron’s Slow Horses in the Slough House anti-Bond series is brilliant on screen and paper and it is great news to see a splendid new author challenging the Fleming, Cornwell and Deighton claims to be emperor of the espionage fiction throne. No doubt British Intelligence will be annoyed that such an anti-Bond production can succeed as, of course, was the case with Harry Palmer in the films based on Len Deighton’s novels.

    Another not dissimilar anti-Bond film production might be on its way based on TheBurlingtonFiles series of spy novels but unlike the Slough House series and Len Deighton’s works it is more fact based than fiction. Interestingly, the protagonist in TheBurlingtonFiles has been likened to a posh Harry Palmer with a dry sense of humour akin to that of Jackson Lamb.

    The first thriller in TheBurlingtonFiles series was called “Beyond Enkription”. It was released in 2014. The remaining five volumes in the series have been stalled for “legal and security” reasons. Nevertheless, Beyond Enkription is an intriguing unadulterated stand-alone thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.

    Beyond Enkription has been heralded by one US critic as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. Little wonder, unlike Slow Horses, Beyond Enkription is mandatory reading on some countries’ intelligence induction programs.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Anokatony's avatar

      Posted by Anokatony on January 25, 2024 at 4:53 AM

      Hi Jim,
      After receiving your comment, I’ve been looking into the intriguing life of Bill Fairclough and his Burlington Files book series. Apparently Bill Fairclough was heavily involved in espionage, especially corporate espionage. Also at one time he was deputy chief financial officer of Citigroup Europe. He also wrote the six-volume Burlington Files book series which, as you say, five of the books are being held up for “legal and security” reasons. The only mention of Bill Fairclough in Wikipedia is that he was involved in bringing the charges against Robert Vesco.
      It seems like the true story of Bill Fairclough might be the best spy story of them all, but it might be too controversial to ever be written.
      It will be interesting to find out the real reasons these five volumes of the Burlington Files series are being held up from publishing.

      Liked by 1 person

      • jimbrownnyusa's avatar

        Posted by jimbrownnyusa on January 25, 2024 at 11:19 AM

        Anokatony – Thanks for the reply. Everything to do with Bill Fairclough is intriguing as you imply. Just because something is in Wikipedia doesn’t mean it’s true but this is as explained later. Bill Fairclough (and FaireSansDire) had an argument about articles relating to him on Wikipedia and Wikipedia Admins and their lawyers withdrew all the articles referring to him (we think over 40 articles were pulled) and the only references left (maybe in error) were in the Vesco article.

        According to FaireSansDire, after consulting with Everipedia and in particular with Larry Sanger (the Wikipedia founder who joined Everipedia), FaireSansDire placed many of those old Wiki articles and many new articles on Everipedia. Everipedia has gone down hill since then: you can’t even update your own articles anymore so the best place to see most relevant articles is now TheBurlingtonFiles website.

        The disputed issues in Wikipedia related to articles about live persons and the fact that at the time much evidence about Bill’s involvement with MI6 etc was circumstantial. That is to be expected and hardly surprising as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ only acknowledge the existence of past CEOs and definitely not mere agents! Since then more information has been released and in particular I would draw your attention to three brief news articles on TheBurlingtonFiles website of interest dated 7 August 2023, 31 October 2022 (in particular) and 26 September 2021. They were released several years after Beyond Enkription was published in 2014 and back up (together with the external links therein) what had been published in his bios and in Beyond Enkription.

        Bill Fairclough’s Vesco incident is explained in more detail in Beyond Enkription. What may have led to his attempted murder may have been to do with his relationship with Vesco’s mistress as well as his investigating Vesco!

        There are several detailed bios about Bill Fairclough on the web (30 minute reads) including one that is easy to navigate on Everipedia although as indicated above it may be a year or so out of date. The most up to date ones are under the heading Author on TheBurlingtonFiles website and in Wikispooks (under Double Agent).

        I have spoken to TheBurlingtonFiles (and FaireSansDire) teams about future publications. They are very open and helpful. They have pulled the release of any further books for an indeterminate period having received death threats to them and their families as well as numerous threats of litigation (SLAPPS). You are bang on target when you say it might all be too controversial.

        As for the truth we have no doubt whatsoever that Bill Fairclough’s bios are basically true and that Beyond Enkription is a true account of his activities albeit laced with poetic license where the chapters deal with his family as opposed to his own activities. Nevertheless, do note that his parents worked in British intelligence and that there even exists a photo to prove it once you check out the names of those officers included along with Richard Fairclough in the picture accompanying an article in TheBurlingtonFiles website dated 16 November 2022.

        Do let me know if you have any further questions and I will see if I can help answer them. You can always contact them via their website or via social media. It is the most fascinating true espionage saga I have ever come across and the deeper you delve into it the more beguiling it becomes. TheBurlingtonFiles team are hoping one day they will emulate Joe Weisberg’s Americans which had 75 episodes. They reckon Beyond Enkription alone can support that number of episodes. I don’t doubt them and hope their dreams come true. Best wishes – Jim

        Liked by 1 person

        • Anokatony's avatar

          Posted by Anokatony on January 25, 2024 at 7:31 PM

          I do have one question. Are the books written in the Burlington Files written as factual or as fiction? If they are written as fiction, I can’t see why they can’t be published.

          Like

          • jimbrownnyusa's avatar

            Posted by jimbrownnyusa on January 25, 2024 at 8:34 PM

            Anokatony (or is it just Tony) – Interesting point but people who make death threats and threaten meritless vindictive litigation (SLAPPS) to prevent publication of Bill Fairclough’s planned publications are not interested in legal niceties. You can call a book fiction and have every legal caveat under the sun saying characters have no resemblance etc to anyone living or dead and still get sued for defamation. Even if the author wins in court he/she may well bear some of the costs and in a typical defamation case nowadays those can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. It can get even more complicated if the court where the case is prosecuted is in a foreign jurisdiction ruled by a tyrant whose grand father was one of the villains named and shamed in one of Bill Fairclough’s books.

            As for Beyond Enkription, it has all the legal caveats under the sun claiming it is fiction but has of late been advertised as being and is indisputably largely fact based. It is about not only extremely rich international criminals but also evil heads of state most of whom were too powerful to face justice. Presumably many of those are now dead but as is visible from his bios, in later years Bill Fairclough confronted other criminals who are more likely to be still alive (even if in prison) and/or have “families” that remember them. They will stop at nothing to prevent publication of any books portraying them to their grandchildren as mobsters, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, psychopaths and so on. Hope that answers your question – best wishes – Jim

            Liked by 1 person

  4. Whispering Gums's avatar

    Posted by whisperinggums on January 27, 2024 at 4:10 PM

    We have watched all the existing series of Slow Horses – three I think – and have enjoyed them. Mr Gums was given one of the books for Christmas but hasn’t read it yet.

    Liked by 1 person

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