Mick Herron’s This Is What Happened starts strong, pulling you into a tense, secretive world that promises espionage and psychological intrigue. I liked the opening—the setup suggested something layered and clever. Unfortunately, the story didn’t quite deliver.
I figured out the mystery far too quickly, and I really don’t read a lot of mysteries. In fact, I assumed something more elaborate was coming because I couldn’t believe it was that simple. But no—my early assumption turned out to be right, which made the rest of the book feel like a slow march toward an ending I already knew.
The ending itself felt forced, with the sudden reappearance of a long-lost sister that added a life-save at the end. Meanwhile, the protagonist’s journey was hard to watch—not because of the writing, but because she came across as painfully, horrifyingly gullible. It became way too obvious she was being manipulated and abused, yet the drawn-out timeline made her seem almost unrealistically naive. Condensing the events might have made her character arc feel more believable.
Another important note: there is sexual assault in the book. It’s not graphic, but it’s still worth a trigger warning.
