Clown Town
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4.4 • 317 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“May be the best Slow Horses book to date.”—The Wall Street Journal
THE NEW NOVEL IN THE SERIES BEHIND SLOW HORSES, AN APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES NOW STREAMING ON APPLE TV
Jackson Lamb and the bad spies of Slough House are caught in a deadly battle between MI5's secret past and its murky future in this gripping, hilarious, and heartbreaking thriller by Mick Herron, “the le Carré of the future” (BBC).
“Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren’t much better than clowns.” Or so David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they’ve fallen on hard times—as River Cartwright is about to learn the hard way.
David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the books is missing. Or perhaps it never existed. River, once a “slow horse” of Slough House, MI5’s outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, has some time to kill while awaiting medical clearance to return to work, and starts investigating the secrets of his grandfather’s library.
Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles laid bare the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme. All she needs is the right dupe to get caught holding the bag.
Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all make it home, there’ll be a reckoning.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A long-buried secret threatens the UK’s intelligence service, and Mick Herron’s clownish crew must set things right in this smart and funny spy thriller. River Cartwright, one of the MI5 reject “slow horses” of Slough House, knows his superspy grandfather had secrets. But when a retired crew of operatives seeks to use one particular secret from a long-ago Northern Ireland assignment to leverage a livable retirement, they face the fury of MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner. So River, Jackson Lamb, and the whole Slough House crew get drawn in as well. Award-winning espionage writer Herron mixes smart and believable intelligence plots with the prats and pitfalls of his misfit gang—especially their leader, the inscrutable (and often insufferable) Jackson Lamb. Building on the brilliant and personality-driven stories of his previous Slow Horses books, Clown Town also introduces some new, unforgettable characters in a fraught drama where everything—and everyone—is on the line. Herron is in a class by himself, and Clown Town showcases an author at the top of his game.
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
A Fun Read
This was a simpler book than Herron normally writes. His writing is still complex, as he can always find the right word but in this book pretends he can’t.
The book lacks emotion as well. The plot was easier to follow, and the characters not as well developed.
So why 4 stars? It’s Mick Herron and he is a joy to read.
Author
I love this series, and this author…but in this book the author shows off his sardonic wit too much for my taste. We want him to get on with the story. Instead he plays word games that don’t advance the narrative nor add anything new to our understanding of the characters.
The book is about slow horses, but it’s the writer who is slow
The author has no respect fir the reader as his paragraphs jumped from one character to another character, and it takes the reader a minute or two to figure out who speaking
Mind you, there’s not even a symbol in the text to show you that the narratives have changed to a new character
and this book, spoiler intended, just ends with so many questions left on an answered with the hope that the reader will buy another book next year
If you’re a fan of the TV series, please know that the writers of the TV series are much better than the guy who invented the characters
I recommend you pass on this book.