*Discover The Secret Hours, the gripping new thriller from Mick Herron and an unmissable read for Slough House fans*

*Now a major TV series starring Gary Oldman*

*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

**THE TIMES THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR**

***WINNER OF THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022***

The seventh book in the Sunday Times bestselling, award-winning, Slough House series, featuring Mick Herron's much loved band of disgraced spies and their notorious leader, Jackson Lamb.

'Kill us? They've never needed to kill us,' said Lamb. 'I mean, look at us. What would be the point?'

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.

'The new king of the spy thriller' Mail on Sunday

'Razor-sharp prose, fully formed characters and an underlying pathos make this series the most exciting development in spy fiction since the Cold War' The Times

'As a master of wit, satire, insight... Herron is difficult to overpraise' Daily Telegraph

'Irresistible writing ... ironclad storytelling and off-kilter humour' Financial Times

'Mick Herron's novels are a satirical chronicle of modern Britain . . . in their gleefully shocking way, his books reflect the trajectory of the nation' Economist

(P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited