Clown Town
The Thriller for Our Chaotic Times (Slough House Thriller 9)
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4.5 • 215 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
The Instant Sunday Times Bestselling Thriller from the Author of Slow Horses
SUNDAY TIMES, THRILLER OF THE YEAR
GUARDIAN, CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR
DAILY TELEGRAPH, BOOK OF THE YEAR
TLS, BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE SPECTATOR, BOOK OF THE YEAR
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'Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer' Ian Rankin
'Clown Town is a masterpiece' India Knight, Sunday Times
'An authentic megastar of the genre' Sam Leith, Guardian
'No one can rival Mick Herron' The Times
'A superb thriller' The Spectator
'Masterly' Times Literary Supplement, books of the year
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MI5's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats.
So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner goes on the offensive. And when that happens, people get hurt.
Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, the slow horses are hard at work: belittling each other, pushing paper, and marking time. Their boss, Jackson Lamb, wants them at their desks, but the slow horses are always looking for a way back on to Spook Street.
Meanwhile, another slow horse, River Cartwright, is waiting to be passed fit for work. At a loose end, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man's library, and a mysteriously missing book. What stories will it hold? And who wants those stories to stay silent?
After all, spies lie, they betray, it's what they do.
*Mick Herron's Clown Town was a Sunday Times Number Four bestseller in hardback in the second week of September 2025 and a Sunday Times Number Nine bestseller in paperback in the first week of May 2026.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Mick Herron brings his reliable gimlet eye to the ninth entry in his Slough House series. By now, readers have come to expect intricate plotting and a damning portrayal of bureaucracy from Herron, all told with a bitterly funny edge. Clown Town drops in on the MI5 misfits of London’s Slough House in their usual quiet disarray, with River Cartwright sifting through his late grandfather’s library and Diana Taverner fielding a blackmail attempt. While past wrongdoings circle back around to bother these beloved, lived-in characters, Herron follows his ensemble cast as they simultaneously grapple with a present day that no longer seems to have a place for them. And of course, Jackson Lamb is waiting in the wings, expecting the worst as always.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Herron's preternatural talents for satire and spycraft are on full display in his latest Slow Horses novel (after Bad Actors). The crimes of a murderous informant who worked with British intelligence in Northern Ireland during the Troubles move a trio of former spies to seek recompense by blackmailing Diana Taverner, First Desk at the Regent's Park headquarters of MI5. Rather than swatting the trio aside, Diana seizes the opportunity to shift blame for their findings onto some of her many rivals. Meanwhile, River Cartwright, grandson of late Service veteran David Cartwright, hears from the man curating his grandfather's library that a book has gone missing. Still recovering from a near-fatal poisoning, River learns that the phantom volume is a repository of state secrets. As those potlines converge, Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House's ragtag group of MI5 rejects, gets roped into Diana's scheme. With his trademark balance of complex plotting and bone-dry laughs, Herron steers the narrative toward a jaw-dropping ending that leaves at least one key player dead and promises big changes for the future of the series. Overflowing with gritty action and mordant humor, this is as good as espionage novels get.
Customer Reviews
This is.. probably the
Best book yet in the whole series!
There’s a level of cold reality here in all facets of the story. There’s past, the present & all versions there could be of the/a future.
There’s also some of the trademark sadness with departures (Trains) but, there’s also much maturity versus joyful immaturity.
Look, you know the trade, buy it, read it (like Standish!)
Brilliant
Just a brilliant book.