This Is What Happened

By: Mick Herron

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

From CWA Gold Dagger winner Mick Herron comes a shocking, twisted novel of psychological suspense about one woman's attempt to be better than ordinary

Twenty-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 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 infiltrate the establishment and 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.

©2018 Mick Herron (P)2018 Recorded Books

Not Herron’s usual characters

This is a fairly slim story, but Herron writes in his unique style, and the narrator does a lovely job

A twisty twisted tale

Very good story, shown from the viewpoint of several people. Left the aftermath unwritten but I’d rather leave it as such.

Not so much

I had a difficult time getting into this story. Three stars only because the narrator
made the story interesting. Glad it was free.

Not his best

I’m a huge fan of the author but this was a disappointment . I’ll reread a Slow Horses to forget this one

Not his best work… not even close.

The story is a twisted variant of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wakefield, featuring a gullible woman, a megalomaniacal english as a second language instructor pretending to work for the security service (MI-5) and a long lost sister.

The only truly interesting part of the story happens at the very beginning, and the rest is of little consequence or interest.

I enjoyed this book

It was different from the slough horse series, and yet entertaining. Not all of his books have to be the same. it’s nice to have his mind write some thing that is different and yet intriguing. I found the narrator superb.

A bad look for both female characters

The Maggie character (and her sister at a point ) are portrayed as idiots, beyond belief. The story is too far fetched.

Creepy!!!!!

Oh Lordy this was such a creepy story. Mick Herron really knows how to make a character a super creep. This a a page turner for sure. A great choice for Halloween season!

Different, but enjoyable.

"This is What Happened" is a slight departure for Herron, who typically writes slightly off-beat MI5 and Police/Detective Procedurals. It was appropriately darker in tone, without being gratuitous. I typically prefer a linear storyline, but Herron does an excellent job of using the Flashback Story to create interest, without becoming confusing. I found I correctly predicted the ending about half way through, but that did not bother me much.


Mick Herron is the first author that I have begun to read everything he has written; I find that I consistently enjoy most of his work. The calibre of writing is a notch above pulp writers. I think it is the "voice" with which his books are written that is the main reason I enjoy his writing so much. The language is casual, yet spirited and effortless. The stories are interesting, yet he manages to avoid (for the most part) the formulaic "feeling" that so many successful authors seem obliged to include in every successive novel.

The story was quite different than the audible description!

This just goes to show that the people at Audible, who write the title details, should actually at least skim the book! The story actually had almost nothing to do with MI5, Other than one character using it, fraudulently as their fake backstory. Other than that, I found the story quite compelling, though creepy.