Publishers Weekly
★ 11/27/2017
At the start of this beautifully written and ingeniously plotted standalone from Herron (Nobody Walks), 26-year-old mail room employee Maggie Barnes is trying hard not to get caught late one night in her 27-story London office building. Harvey Wells, an MI5 agent, has recruited her to upload some spyware on her company’s computer network from a flash drive. Adrift in the metropolis, Maggie has zero self-esteem and only the slimmest of personal ties to anyone, so this represents her chance to do something significant. Suffice it to say that her mission goes sideways. What at first appears to be a tale of spycraft and intrigue turns out to be something quite different—a disturbing portrait of contemporary England, with its “drip-drip-drip of sour resentment” (pre- and post-Brexit) and the palpable anomie of London. Most important is the fraught relationship between the pitiable Maggie and the manipulative Harvey, a man of great anger and bitterness. This dark thriller is rife with the deadpan wit and trenchant observation that Herron’s readers relish. Agent: Juliet Burton, Juliet Burton Literary Agency (U.K.) (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Praise for This Is What Happened
"Sucks you in from the opening page . . . what looks at first like your basic spy thriller morphs into something far different—a tricky game of three-character monte filled with sly twists that Herron reveals with the precision of a high-end Swiss watchmaker."
—John Powers, NPR's Fresh Air
"Mr. Herron cleverly employs the tropes of spy fiction to construct a frightening psychological puzzle. He then transforms the conundrum into yet another unexpected story, one that leaves the reader hoping for a resolution that may or may not materialize."
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"There is, quite simply, no current thriller writer who enjoys better word-of-mouth than Mick Herron."
—Financial Times
"Like [Herron's] other books, this one resides where escapism and political paranoia meet. Planted firmly in the realm of the possible, his works toy with 21st-century fears and manias: terrorism, government deceit, economic meltdowns and hostage-takers . . . That he accomplishes all this while interspersing the hair-raising with the humorous is quite a feat. He’s a trickster, a wit, a cynic, a slippery rogue of a storyteller who is unapologetic about leading the reader astray, but who makes the diversion worthwhile."
—Helen T. Verongos, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"In clipped, stylish prose, Mick Herron’s sly, twisty, bullet-paced narrative tracks Maggie’s journey from a skittish participant in her own life to a reluctant recruit in something diabolical. Suddenly, Maggie’s life becomes a Patricia Highsmith story."
—Carole E. Barrowman, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Beautifully written and ingeniously plotted . . . This dark thriller is rife with the deadpan wit and trenchant observation that Herron's readers relish."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Profoundly disturbing . . . Fans who miss the startling and compelling psychological suspense of Ruth Rendell will relish this unsettling tale."
—Booklist, Starred Review
"Fans of twisty espionage fiction and psychological suspense won’t want to put this book down until they find out what exactly happened."
—Library Journal
"Herron has some fantastical twists in mind that Agatha Christie never dreamed of."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Draws on [Herron's] incisive spymaster knowledge as well as other imaginative forays, and uses the mean streets of contemporary London to their utmost advantage."
—The Seattle Review of Books
"[Herron's] sentences have no wasted words; they're just long enough to land their punches and leave. The story goes to dark, disturbing places, but not without a sense of humor."
—Shelf Awareness
"[This is What Happened] has the potential to be the next big thing, like The Girl on the Train next big thing . . . It's an espionage novel, a thriller and a mystery, all rolled into one glorious book that you can and will read in one sitting."
—Bookreporter
"Takes elements of the familiar spy story, with its secrets and switchback betrayals, and locks them inside a tightly-sealed box of psychological suspense."
—Reviewing the Evidence
"Herron’s latest is highly recommended for its unexpected take on an otherwise familiar theme, its characters and setting, and especially for ways Herron takes us down unanticipated narrative roads."
—Bookgasm
“It would be criminal to even hint at the plot of Mick Herron's new thriller This Is What Happened. With not an unnecessary word, Herron conjures a trio of deeply flawed Londoners and sets them hurtling down the path from bad to worse. Before you know it the sickening realization of what is actually happening hooks you like an armful of heroin. This Is What Happened is so fiendishly, perversely addictive that you'll stay up late turning the pages and put the book down begging for more. Mute your phone, lock the door, and put yourself in the hands of a master storyteller.”
—David Enyeart, Common Good Books
Praise for Mick Herron, Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel & 2017 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller
"Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way . . . In Herron's book, there is no hiding under the desk."
─The New York Times Book Review
"Terrific spy novel . . . Sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting."
—Ian Rankin, bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus books
"Stylish and engaging."
─The Washington Post
“Heroic struggles, less-heroic failures and a shoot-out-cum-heist . . . with no let-up in the page-turning throughout.”
—Esquire
“A funny, stylish, satirical, gripping story . . . Memorably seedy characters, sharp dialogue, complex plot. I’m hooked.”
—The Guardian
“This is blackly funny, tense and worryingly plausible. The most enjoyable British spy novel in years.”
—Mail on Sunday
“[A] deliciously sleazy and sophisticated spy thriller.”
—The Irish Times
Kirkus Reviews
2017-11-28
The latest stand-alone from Herron couldn't be more different from his bustling, often brutally funny series about the government agents at Slough House (Spook Street, 2017, etc.). This pared-down exercise in suspense is just plain brutal."I wish this were like the films," Harvey Wells tells Maggie Barnes, the mouse he's recruited to run a delicate undercover errand for MI5. All Harvey wants Maggie to do is install an eavesdropping program in one of the computers in Quilp House, where she works in the bowels of the post office. And it's for the good of her nation and the world, since the functionaries of Quilp House, it seems, are actually working for the Chinese government. But Harvey can't offer Maggie moment-by-moment instructions or surveillance or backup; if she gets caught or anything goes wrong, she's on her own. This opening movement recalls the recruiting of the suicidal heroine of So Many Steps to Death 60 years ago, but Herron has some fantastical twists in mind that Agatha Christie never dreamed of. Something does go wrong; Maggie does get caught; and although Harvey rescues her, her life as she knows it is essentially over. To say more would spoil some of the surprises planted at regular intervals throughout the hyperextended period following Maggie's single attempt at counterespionage. Suffice it to say that Herron spins a remarkable, if often blankly incredible, tale whose dramatis personae are limited to three characters, one walk-on, and a few others dimly or harshly remembered.Given Herron's outrageous premise, the complications are managed with delicious control. Only the last act stumbles, because the climax is the only part of this story that's remotely predictable.
