The Secret Hours

 The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (2023 Baskerville/John Murray paperback 394pp)

 

If you’re a fan of modern espionage thrillers then you probably know of Mick Herron’s writing. Previously writing low-key novels about private investigators he was launched into stardom by the success of his Slough House/Slow Horses/Jackson Lamb series. Even that success was initially a slow-burn requiring a change of publisher or two before the sheer genius was recognised and promoted. With the books now regular best-sellers things have been amped up even further by Apple adapting them into a critically-acclaimed television series. Therefore, it seemed odd that this year there was no new Slough House novel in the publishing pipeline. Instead, we were told a new standalone book, The Secret Hours was to be released and Slough House series fans may enjoy it.

While The Secret Hours could indeed be read as a standalone, I hope its not too much a spoiler to let you know this book is totally connected to the Slough House ‘universe’ and really couldn’t exist without it. Few pages go by without a reference or ‘easter egg’ to make the fans of the series smile. Both major and minor characters familiar to fans make appearances, some quite prominently. Its clearly an expansion of the same world as seen from some different angles and viewpoints.

Max Janacek is awoken by intruders breaking into his secluded Devon cottage. He fights his way out and uses his local knowledge to outwit his pursuers. Who are they and what do they want? Who and what was Max in a former life?

Cynical politicians and their manipulative advisors (all of whom we’ve already met in the Slough House books) have initiated an inquiry into historical misdeeds of MI-6 aka “Regent Park”. The inquiry (code name Monochrome) is stonewalled by the intelligence services but limps on interviewing various paranoid miscreants and naysayers. The inquiry is lead by civil servants Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle both of whom are struggling through their own private lives never mind the day-to-day duties of an apparent dead-end task.  Suddenly Malcolm comes into possession of genuine secret records of a failed operation from 30 years prior in Berlin. They call a witness known as Alison North, a fresh-faced new agent in the 1990s and she tells the story of her mission.

In Berlin Alison was officially auditing expenses and finances of the MI-6 station there but of course she had a secret purpose and this leads her into both conflict and friendship with the unique characters based there. One of which, Brinsley Miles is quite obviously a major character from the other books at an earlier stage of his illustrious career.

We flip forward and back between the present day with Max, Monochrome etc and Berlin in the newly reunified Germany of the 1990s. To go into more details would probably ruin many of the surprises in store for readers. There are twists and double-crosses and along the way we learn more about origins and previous motivations of some quite familiar names from Herron’s other books.

The author’s writing is typically top-notch is this volume. He’s always demonstrated much skill describing people, situations and locations in surprising but very apt ways. He has a special way of making sarcastic and cynical comment on modern life and in this book, he excels at it.

An absolute treat for his existing fans. One wonders how well this goes down with a new reader but hopefully it will lead them into a habit of spending quality time with our favourite slow horses.

 

Grand

 Grand by Noelle McCarthy (2022 Penguin paperback 270pp)

Born in Ireland, Noelle McCarthy was something of a New Zealand media darling in the early 2000s. I recall several magazine and newspaper profiles following her career as she moved up from Auckland student radio to the state broadcaster Radio New Zealand. That’s where I first heard her - filling in for other hosts then eventually getting her own show airing over the long summer breaks. She was a bright and fiercely intelligent woman with an incredibly attractive accent. Then suddenly she was gone, apparently never to be mentioned again. If I had been a follower of gossip columns at the time I probably would have known more.

Grand in parts is a conventional memoir but it is centred on and focusses on McCarthy’s relationship with her mother Carol. Carol was a seemingly meek and mild woman who after having a drink or two became an angry beast beyond control of her family, a trait she passed on to her daughter to some extent.

The book starts with McCarthy having rushed across the world to Ireland upon learning her mother has only days to live. Then we flash back and forth in time to vignettes of their relationship. Along the way we learn a little more about both of them and their family. Most of it is interesting and enlightening but I did think the book verged into ‘misery porn’ often. Before she was married, Carol had two children she had to give up (one of which who died as a baby). She met McCarthy’s long-suffering father and had four more children at an early age. Part of her rage against the then-restricted culture of catholic Ireland was to drink, eventually succumbing to alcoholism.

We follow the young Noelle through her school days and beyond. In the late 1990s after working in a restaurant owned by a kiwi she decides to head to New Zealand. After some dead-end waitressing jobs, she gets a role at BFM student radio and the rest is history. What we didn’t know at the time was she was frequently following in her mother’s footsteps by drinking herself to oblivion.

Eventually she decides to accept help and gives up drinking. She marries and has a child of her own. All this is interspersed with stories of her mother and their on and off again communication. Carol is diagnosed with cancer and after refusing treatment she ends up in hospital which is where the book began. The ending to the story is inevitable.

Parts of this book were highly enjoyable and it manages to have something to say about friends, family and many aspects of life. I’m not sure I like the focus of an author’s memoir to be someone else entirely – it is trying to be two things at once and not entirely succeeding for me at least.

It’s a solid read, maybe not exactly uplifting but keeps you turning the pages until the end.

 

Tsunami

Tsunami by Ned Wenlock (2023 Earths End Publishing paperback 275pp)

 

Even though this is his first full-length graphic novel, Ned Wenlock is no newcomer to the artistic scene. Starting out as a graphic designer, he’s been drawing comics and creating animations for several decades now. He recently found acclaim as the producer of short films and music videos.

Tsunami tells the tale of Peter, a young man aged around twelve or thirteen living in what looks like a semi-rural New Zealand town. It is six weeks until the end of the school year and the change to becoming a high school student looms out there beyond the summer break.

With the background of his parents arguing and growing apart, Peter’s sense of fair play and always doing the right thing leads him into a turmoil of extreme anxiety and danger. The local bully Gus seems to be after him and a new girl from the UK called Charlie seems to want to be his friend, but can she be trusted?

The story takes several unexpected and sometimes brutal turns – just when you think this is going to be another whimsical coming-of-age tale, Wenlock will throw in a twist or three. Clues abound about Peter’s true state of mind. Set to draw a picture in class he produces an image of a lamb surrounded by menacing wolves. His teacher catches him staring longingly at something in a shop window – is it the fishing rod like he claims or the hunting knives?

The black and white art is both simplistic and stylised. People are all a peculiar rounded shape like cross between balloon animals and jellybeans. Apart from their hairstyles and relative sizes there’s very little to differentiate them. On a few occasions this led me to being confused about who was talking or who we were following. The artwork, for the main part, is arranged in a traditional 12-panel grid on each page and Wenlock packs a lot of story into them. It reads well and I managed to finish the whole thing in around an hour. Even after all the twists I was still expecting a conventional happy ending for poor beleaguered Peter or maybe I was hoping for one for his sake. Wenlock has other ideas and maybe don’t read this one as a bedtime story.

The author accurately captures all the feelings and pressures of a certain age without turning it into a message-heavy episode of The Simpsons or South Park. Not for little kids or adults looking for something to ban.