{"product_id":"this-is-what-happened-isbn-9781616959777","title":"This Is What Happened","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eSlow Horses \u003c\/i\u003ecomes a riveting novel of psychological suspense about one woman's attempt to be better than ordinary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in the huge city of London, with no family but an estranged sister, no 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOr just the kind of person MI5 needs to infiltrate the establishment and thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow one young woman has the chance to be a hero—if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThis Is What Happened\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—John Powers, NPR's \u003ci\u003eFresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Tom Nolan, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There is, quite simply, no current thriller writer who enjoys better word-of-mouth than Mick Herron.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Helen T. Verongos, \u003ci\u003eSt. Louis Post-Dispatch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Carole E. Barrowman, \u003ci\u003eThe Minneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beautifully written and ingeniously plotted . . . This dark thriller is rife with the deadpan wit and trenchant observation that Herron's readers relish.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Profoundly disturbing . . . Fans who miss the startling and compelling psychological suspense of Ruth Rendell will relish this unsettling tale.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fans of twisty espionage fiction and psychological suspense won’t want to put this book down until they find out what exactly happened.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Herron has some fantastical twists in mind that Agatha Christie never dreamed of.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Seattle Review of Books\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Shelf Awareness\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eThis is What Happened\u003c\/i\u003e] has the potential to be the next big thing, like \u003ci\u003eThe Girl on the Train\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Bookreporter\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Takes elements of the familiar spy story, with its secrets and switchback betrayals, and locks them inside a tightly-sealed box of psychological suspense.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Reviewing the Evidence\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\"  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Bookgasm  \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It would be criminal to even hint at the plot of Mick Herron's new thriller \u003ci\u003eThis Is What Happened\u003c\/i\u003e. 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. \u003ci\u003eThis Is What Happened \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.​” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—David Enyeart, Common Good Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for Mick Herron\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003e, Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel \u0026amp; 2017 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way . . . In Herron's book, there is no hiding under the desk.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e─\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Terrific spy novel . . . Sublime dialogue, frictionless plotting.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Ian Rankin, bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Stylish and engaging.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e─\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Heroic struggles, less-heroic failures and a shoot-out-cum-heist . . . with no let-up in the page-turning throughout.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEsquire \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A funny, stylish, satirical, gripping story . . . Memorably seedy characters, sharp dialogue, complex plot. I’m hooked.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This is blackly funny, tense and worryingly plausible. The most enjoyable British spy novel in years.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Mail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[A] deliciously sleazy and sophisticated spy thriller.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Irish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMick Herron\u003c\/b\u003e is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied English at Oxford. He is the author of the Slough House espionage series, four Oxford mysteries, and several standalone novels. His work has won the CWA Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in Crime Writing, the Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel, the Steel Dagger for Best Thriller, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, and been nominated for the Macavity, Barry, Shamus, and Theakstons Novel of the Year Awards. He currently lives in Oxford and writes full-time.1\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The longer she sat\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ethere, the colder she became. With her back to the cistern, and her feet drawn up beneath her, Maggie perched on the closed lid of the toilet, and concentrated on being as still as possible. An hour earlier, a spasm in her leg had caused the overhead lights to switch on. Their electric hum had startled her more than the glare. Someone would hear it, she thought, and come investigate. But nobody arrived, and the spasm subsided, and a few minutes later the lights turned themselves off again.\u003cbr\u003e      “How long do I have to hide in the toilets?” she had asked Harvey.\u003cbr\u003e       “Until twelve. At least.”\u003cbr\u003e       “The guard patrols all night long.”\u003cbr\u003e       “But there’s only one of him. And he can’t be on every floor at once.”\u003cbr\u003e      She had an urge to confirm that the flash drive was still in her pocket, but any movement would bring the lights to life, and besides, she had checked three times already.\u003cbr\u003e      Alone in the dark Maggie squeezed her eyes shut, tried not to shiver, and made herself invisible.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Quilp House was twenty-seven storeys high, each spreading out from a central lobby area where the lifts were, and around which the stairwells ran. In the lower half of the building the floors were open-plan, with rows of desks divided into three or four work-stations apiece. During the day a kind of electricity filled the air, which was not so much the ambient excitement caused by communion with the world’s markets as much as it was the repressed emotions of people forced to work in close proximity, and thus hold in their baser reactions, their bodily rumblings.\u003cbr\u003e      From the twentieth level, the building changed character. Here, people worked behind closed doors, in progressively larger offices. Views became spectacular. The higher up you were, the further off you could see the weather. \u003cbr\u003e      On these floors cameras blinked at corridors’ ends, little red lights above their lenses signalling vigilance. Occasionally they swivelled, redirecting their meerkat gaze.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “What about the CCTV?”\u003cbr\u003e       “There are two guards on the night shift,” Harvey had explained. He was patient with her. Without having to be told, she knew he understood what it was to step across the lines that bordered daily behaviour. “One to patrol, and the other to watch the screens. The TV monitors. Do you know how many of these there are?”\u003cbr\u003e      She had a vision of a wall built of pixels, boasting as many views of corridors as there were satellite channels screening sport.\u003cbr\u003e       “There are six,” he said. “And they alternate from camera to camera. Which means the odds are against your showing up on screen at any given time.”\u003cbr\u003e       “So they don’t automatically detect motion?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Maggie.” He had reached across the table and put his hand on hers. Around them had been the usual clatter of young mums and earnest hipsters: like most of their conversations, this had taken place in the café where they first met. Where he had first approached her. “It’s fine to be scared. It’s fine not to want to do this.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I do want to do it.”\u003cbr\u003e       “And I wouldn’t ask if I could see any other way of getting the job done. If you knew—”\u003cbr\u003e      He broke off while a young woman squeezed past with a tray piled high with dirty mugs, their rims laced with froth.\u003cbr\u003e       “I know you wouldn’t,” she told him.\u003cbr\u003e      Because she was his only hope.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Her wristwatch pinged when midnight struck.\u003cbr\u003e      For a moment, the sound confused her—she had not been asleep, precisely, but had entered a fugue state in which memories and plans collided, throwing sparks off each other—and she jerked upright, banging her head against the cistern. An image of her sister popped and vanished as the cubicle light flickered on, followed by the other bulbs in the lavatory. Her heart pounded. Someone would come. But nobody did, and after a moment Maggie unfolded her limbs, which were creaky with cold, and tried to rub life into them.\u003cbr\u003e      Pins and needles assaulted her fingers. She did not feel like an agent on a mission. She felt like a young woman up past bedtime, who wanted only to crawl beneath some covers and find warmth.\u003cbr\u003e       “What do I do now, Harvey?” she whispered.\u003cbr\u003e      It would have been nice if he’d been there, offering an answer. But it was up to her now. She was on her own.\u003cbr\u003e      Because it didn’t matter—because the lights had blinked on anyway—before making her way out of the cubicle, she raised the toilet lid, pulled down her jeans and pants, and used it for the purpose for which it was intended. Then she rearranged her clothing, closed the lid, and had her hand on the handle before she caught herself—that would be all she needed, to send a watery alarm cascading through the building. She imagined security guards stomping up and down the stairwells, crashing into the lavatories on each floor, throwing open doors, looking for the culprit. \u003cbr\u003e       “Maggie, Maggie,” she murmured to herself.\u003cbr\u003e      When her heart rate was normal she unlocked her cubicle and tiptoed to the door and opened it and peered out.\u003cbr\u003e      The corridor was in darkness. The motion sensors were sleepy, and wouldn’t kick in until she stepped outside. Even then they allowed a second or two’s grace, as if they needed convincing that they weren’t rousing themselves for someone of no consequence. For a mouse, creeping its night-time way along an empty hall.\u003cbr\u003e      Rather than a spy. An agent on a mission.\u003cbr\u003e       “Trying not to make the lights come on will only stress you out,” Harvey had said. “It can’t be done. You have to move to get where you need to be, and the sensors will do the rest. So don’t worry about them. You can’t control the things you can’t control.”\u003cbr\u003e      It was nice that he was confident she could control the other things.\u003cbr\u003e       “Maggie, Maggie,” she chided herself again. Here was the equation: if the lights were off, the guard wasn’t on this floor. And if he wasn’t on this floor, he wouldn’t see the lights coming on.\u003cbr\u003e      Which meant it was safe to step out into the corridor.\u003cbr\u003e      But before she could do so the lights flickered and the door to the lobby clicked shut, and then—loud as a lion—she could hear the breathy whistling of the security guard as he rounded the corner, heading her way.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I wish this were like the films,” Harvey had said, “where you have an earpiece and a radio mic, and we’re synchronised to the nanosecond. And I’d be hacked into the security system, so I could tell you when it’s safe to walk down a corridor, and when to shelter under a desk. But life’s not like that, Maggie. This business isn’t like that. We’re a lot more . . . We’re less James Bond and a lot more, I don’t know, Mr. Bean or someone. We have to use what’s at hand. And I wish I didn’t have to ask you to do this. If I could do it myself, I would. If there were any other way . . .”\u003cbr\u003e      He had not finished his sentence. He hadn’t needed to.\u003cbr\u003e       “And let me say this. You’re a brave girl, a tremendous girl, and I couldn’t be prouder of you. But if you want to back out, do it now. Because from here on, it’ll be too late.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I don’t want to back out.”\u003cbr\u003e      She did, though.\u003cbr\u003e      What he was asking was that she put her head in the dragon’s mouth. It was so far removed from her daily life she might as well be watching it in one of those films it wasn’t like, and even there at the table she could feel her innards contract, her thighs grow watery. She’d wobble when she stood, she knew she would. And she ought to tell him he’d picked the wrong girl, a nobody, who couldn’t be relied on. She’d dissolve into panic at the worst moment. She wasn’t icy cool and she wasn’t super-hot. He’d plucked her from a crowd, and really, it would be sensible to let her subside back into it, and lose herself among the traffic.\u003cbr\u003e      But if she said that she’d see disappointment cross his features, that strange mix of the ugly and the sad on which she’d come to depend.\u003cbr\u003e      And besides . . . And besides, what he was asking of her was important. For Queen and country, he’d have said in the old days, though here in the modern world it was more tangible than that. What he was asking her to be was a cog in a larger wheel, on whose turning much depended. He was giving her the opportunity of helping ensure that something did not happen. That there was a fundamental anonymity to this—success measured as an absence of event—did not faze her. Anonymity was her natural setting, her personality’s screensaver. Just ask Meredith.\u003cbr\u003e       “Good, then. Good.” He fished about in his pocket.\u003cbr\u003e      For all he’d said about not being James Bond, Maggie had still expected something flashy, in a silver case perhaps, moulded to fit. But instead he’d handed her a very ordinary flash drive, the size of her thumb. It was black, with a white label so its contents could be indexed. This was blank, of course. When she reached to take it from him, he held it over her palm for a moment.\u003cbr\u003e       “But listen. Whatever happens, you mustn’t let this fall into their hands. They mustn’t know you’ve got it, mustn’t know you’ve used it. Once it’s done its job, you have to either get it out of the building, or hide it somewhere it won’t be found. And they will be looking.” His gaze was intense. She imagined this the look men used when sending other men to war. \u003ci\u003eYou might not come back. But I will remember you. \u003c\/i\u003e“If they find you, if they know you’ve been there, they’ll be looking for this. And they mustn’t find it. I can’t tell you how crucial that is.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I understand.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Do you?”\u003cbr\u003e      She could only nod.\u003cbr\u003e      He let go of the drive and there it was, on her palm.\u003cbr\u003e      Maggie made a fist round it, keeping it safe.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e She melted back inside, letting the door close silently, and stood with her back to it, her heart’s hammering the loudest sound in London. He would hear her through the wood, and see the light beneath the door. Or put a hand to it and push, the automatic gesture of the guard on patrol, and when he encountered the resistance of her weight, it would be over. Alarms would sound, or whistles blow. Those meerkat cameras would turn and point, and her image would plaster itself over the monitors downstairs—six of them? The other guard, the one whose job it was to lean back in his chair and eat doughnuts, would reach for the telephone. And it would not be the police he would call, Harvey had left her in no doubt about that. The people whose building this was, whose secrets it contained, they looked after their own. The last thing they’d do would be call the police.\u003cbr\u003e      But he won’t see the light, she thought, because the lights are on in the corridor too. There’ll be no telltale yellow strip painting the carpet. This was just another door, the ladies’ loo, and why would he check that it opened? It always opened.\u003cbr\u003e      His whistling was familiar, a tune on the edge of her recall. It faded as he walked past, and the creaking of his tread on the carpet disappeared. The door he’d come through, from the lobby where the lifts and stairwells were, was off to her right, and if he completed a circuit of the floor he would not pass by again but enter the same lobby from the other side. But she didn’t know his routines, whether he might halt halfway and retrace his steps, or whether he was heading for a particular desk, or for the vending machine in the kitchen area . . . She could slip out now, and run into him three seconds later. Or this might be as close as their paths would come, and the fact that she’d just evaded him—had all but felt his breath on her cheek—might itself be a token that her safety was now assured.\u003cbr\u003e      Maggie, Maggie . . .\u003cbr\u003e      There were no tokens, no guarantees. But what was certain was that the light was currently on. Slipping into the corridor would cause nothing to change. As soon as this thought took hold of her she acted on it, standing upright, opening the door, stepping outside. The corridor was empty. Choosing the direction the guard had come from, she hurried round the corner to the lobby door.","brand":"Soho Crime","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302551343333,"sku":"NP9781616959777","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781616959777.jpg?v=1767742504","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/this-is-what-happened-isbn-9781616959777","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}