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This is What Happened
Something’s happened.
A lot of things have happened.
If she could turn back time, she wondered how far she would go.
Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in London, with no family but an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the kind of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice.
Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk.
Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero – if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.
A lot of things have happened.
If she could turn back time, she wondered how far she would go.
Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in London, with no family but an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the kind of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice.
Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk.
Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero – if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.
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Reviews
A beautifully written and ingeniously plotted standalone from Herron . . . this dark thriller is rife with the deadpan wit and trenchant observation that Herron's readers relish
Part spy thriller, part creepy psychological thriller, the slick twists and elegant prose make this a super read
Imagine John Fowles's The Collector rewritten by Ruth Rendell . . . you'd be nuts not to feast on this clever black comedy
Herron delivers a chilling psychological thriller . . . An in-one-sitting read
An ingenious standalone psychological thriller from Mick Herron . . . a compelling and claustrophobic three-hander
A spine-crawlingly creepy portrait of cruelty and of loneliness . . . springing twist after brilliant twist as he practically dares his reader to try to put the book down . . . very impressive
Patrick Hamilton seems the main influence in this story of broken lives epitomising a society coming apart, both in his studies of London's losers and in his seminal depiction of gaslighting that foreshadows how Maggie is imprisoned and controlled
There is, quite simply, no current thriller writer who enjoys better word-of-mouth than Mick Herron, whose sardonic series of Jackson Lamb espionage novels have accrued a devoted following. The unassuming Maggie Barnes is an improbable enlistee for MI5 - but she may be able to save the UK from a devastating plot
John Fowles's The Collector rewritten by Ruth Rendell
A cat-and-mouse psychological thriller about the people who fall through London's cracks. Perfectly crafted, beautifully written, I started it in the morning and it was dark when I looked up
Intriguing and filled with surprises . . . reads like John le Carre rewriting Alice in Wonderland
Mick Herron is a genius . . . This is What Happened has an utterly blindsiding twist which had me gasping for joy at its audacity. A good introduction to Herron for those who haven't tried the Slough House books, and a delight for those who have
There are more twists than a 1960s dance marathon in this unsettling tale, along with plenty of Herron's delicious dark humour