Perhaps one of Mick Herron’s greatest strengths is his facility with unreliable narration, a skill he deploys to considerable effect in his novels — most of which feature multiple protagonists whose hidden agendas and varying levels of self awareness lend the stories a certain comical muzziness. It should make sense, then, that he would write something like This is What Happened (2018), a bleak standalone thriller that bakes unreliability right into its theme, not to mention its ironic title.
The intrigue starts in the bathroom stall of a London office building, where inexperienced asset-in-place Maggie Barnes is steeling herself to execute a top-secret operation. She has been recruited by MI5 officer Harvey Wells to infiltrate the upper-echelon offices of Quilp House, a financial services firm, to deploy a hack against its network. A lowly mailroom employee recruited for her building access, Maggie is an unlikely spy, and sure enough her mission goes spectacularly awry — turning her into a fugitive and sending her life in dark, dangerous directions.
Compared to Herron’s best work, This is What Happened feels fairly minor, hobbled somewhat by characters that are — by design — difficult to rally around. But part of what brings out the completist in me with Herron is how effortlessly entertaining he makes it all look, easing the reader into the mysterious goings-on so accessibly it’s impossible to grow disinterested. As in the Slough House series, he delights in rolling around in the minds of losers, but Maggie and Harvey are a few notches below the average Slow Horse — deluded, gullible, looking at the world through distorted lenses that their own clumsy agendas only make worse. Overall, the trajectory is not that startling, but enough clues are kept hidden to keep the pages flapping, and Herron cleverly keeps the reader keyed into what’s happening despite viewpoint characters who, often humorously, can’t see straight. Ultimately it’s not all that substantial, perhaps, but the trickster narrative is so confident and speedy that it’s hard not to get swept up in it.
