The Marylebone Drop: A Novella

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Code Name: Hannah Weiss, MI5’s double agent in the BND, is randomly assigned "Snow White" as her code name. It seems a little too close for comfort. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Drop Slough House Novella by Herron Mick - AbeBooks Drop Slough House Novella by Herron Mick - AbeBooks

Richard Pynne is the new and inexperienced handler who’s taken on Hannah Weiss, the Double Agent Bachelor recruited at the end of The List.All Abusers Are Male: Averted. Hannah requests a move from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills because her manager’s behaviour (late night phone calls, gifts, requests for private meetings) is making her uncomfortable. Nash immediately assumes the manager in a man, Pynne corrects him. And Hannah is lying about all of this anyway, trying to get a role that’s more useful to her BND handlers. Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows he’s witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly for MI5, he sets in motion a train of events that will alter lives.

The Marylebone Drop (Slough House Novella)|Paperback The Marylebone Drop (Slough House Novella)|Paperback

A drop, in spook parlance, is the passing on of secret information. It’s also what happens just before you hit the ground. Old spooks carry the memory of tradecraft in their bones, and when Solomon Dortmund sees an envelope being passed from one pair of hands to another in a Marylebone café, he knows he’s witnessed more than an innocent encounter. But in relaying his suspicions to John Bachelor, who babysits retired spies like Solly for MI5, he sets in motion a train of events that will alter lives. The Alleged Boss: Pynne is Hannah’s MI5 handler and he thinks he's in charge, but she’s easily manipulating him and many of the decisions are actually hers. Double Agent: MI5 is running Hannah Weiss as a double agent in the BND. Or at least they think they are. Bad Boss: Subverted. Hannah’s boss appears to be sexually harassing her, but Hannah - a Triple Agent - is lying in an attempt to get a role that’s more useful to her BND handlers.Thoroughly gripping espionage, focused on intelligent plotting over action for its own sake—think le Carré, but with a heartier dash of dry humor.” As first seen in The List, John Bachelor is at the least important end of the scale. He looks after "the milk round", elderly foreign assets who’ve retired to the UK. The Bad Guy Wins: By the end of the story Solomon’s dead, Alec Wicinski’s been framed for possession of child-porn and MI5 has moved Hannah Weiss to the Brexit office, still unaware that she’s a BND triple agent.