THE SECRET HOURS

By Mick Herron

Synopsis

Trying to investigate the Secret Service is like trying to get rid of the stink of dead badger. Hard. For two years the government's Monochrome inquiry has produced nothing more than a series of dead ends. The Service has kept what happened in the newly reunified Berlin under wraps for decades, and intends for it to stay that way. But then the OTIS file turns up.What classified secrets does it hold? And what damage will it create? All Max Janacek knows is that someone is chasing him through the pitch-dark country lanes and they want him gone. We all have jobs to do in the daylight. It's what you do in the secret hours that reveals who you really are.

Sample Player

Narrator	Sean Barrett
Length	12hrs 41mins
Catalogue No.	19585
Publisher	Baskerville; 2023

Other audiobooks by Mick Herron

BAD ACTORS

In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere. A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5's Regent's Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent's Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5's radar. Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation. In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they'll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.

DEAD LIONS

London's Slough House is where disgraced MI5 spies go to finish their washed-up careers. Now they have a chance at redemption. An old Cold War-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. Jackson Lamb soon uncovers a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets. How many people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?

DOWN CEMETERY ROAD

Sarah Tucker - a young married woman, bored and unhappy with her life - becomes obsessed with trying to find the little girl who disappears after a neighbouring house is destroyed by a massive explosion. What begins in suburban Oxford ends on a Scottish island as the hunt for the missing child takes Sarah out of her marriage and onto a journey with a troubled ex-soldier.

JOE COUNTRY

In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski is determined to discover who destroyed his career. Meanwhile, in Regents Park, Diana Taverners tenure as First Desk is running into difficulties. If she's going to make the Service fit for purpose, she might have to make deals with a familiar devil... And with winter taking its grip, Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.

THE LAST VOICE YOU HEAR

When Caroline Daniels takes a deadly fall in front of a train and her lover fails to turn up at the funeral, Zoë Boehm wants nothing to do with the case. But Caroline's boss is persistent, and as Zoë attempts to unlock the secrets of a woman she's never met while in search of a man who could be anywhere, she starts to wonder if he's found her first. And if he has, will that make her the next victim?

LONDON RULES

London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one. Cover your arse. The country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and over at Slough House, the crew are about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse. It's a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.

NOBODY WALKS

Tom Bettany is working in France when he learns that his estranged 26-year-old son is dead. Liam Bettany fell from his London balcony, where he was smoking dope. Bettany returns home to find out the truth about his son's death. But more than a few people are interested to hear he is back in town. He might have thought he'd left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody really just walks away.

REAL TIGERS

London's Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their spy careers pushing paper. But when one of them is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, Jackson Lamb's agents soon uncover a web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but also the highest authorities in the Security Service.

SLOUGH HOUSE

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.

SLOW HORSES

Jackson Lamb's misfit crew of highly trained spooks don't run ops, they push paper. But then a young boy is kidnapped and held hostage with his beheading scheduled for live broadcast on the net. Whatever the instructions of the Service, the 'slow horses' aren't going to just sit quiet and watch . . .

SPOOK STREET

Veteran spook David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail. Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day - he knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man. So it's Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright's panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ. And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril . . .