Clown Town - (Slough House) by Mick Herron (Hardcover)

About the Book

"David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks' College in Oxford, and now it turns out that one of the books has gone missing. Or perhaps it never existed. Now 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 investigating the secrets of his grandfather's library seems a harmless activity. But nothing involving the slow horses ever stays harmless for long. Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles revealed 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 in which the would-be blackmailer is a solution to a much newer problem"--

Book Synopsis

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.

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Clown Town

A New York Times Bestseller
An American Bookseller Association Indie Bestseller
Vogue's Best Books of the Year
NPR's Books We Love
ELLE's Best Mysteries and Thrillers of the Year
The Guardian's Best Crime Books and Thrillers of the Year
Minnesota Star Tribune's 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year
#2 on People Magazine's Must-Read Books of Fall
An ABA Indie Next Selection
A Barnes & Noble Best Mystery & Thriller Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book Fiction Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award

"A wickedly funny take on espionage."
--People

"Excellent . . . Herron's work now has a huge following and no wonder: He's a master at mixing byzantine plotting with breathless pacing."
--Vogue

"Darkly comic."
--The New York Times

"May be the best Slow Horses book to date . . . Mr. Herron's style is as relaxed and stylish as ever, accommodating both keen one-line descriptions and more elaborate imagery. Unpredictability remains a hallmark of the series: One of the slow horses takes an irreversible action toward the end of Clown Town so unexpected it seems as shocking as a drive-by shooting."
--Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

"Clown Town showcases the series' best qualties . . . It's a quirk and a gift that the author can tell such somber, unsettling stories so sprightly."
--The Washington Post

"Clown Town sparkles with the razor-sharp humor, complicated characters and drum-tight narrative that have marked the other books in the series . . . Funny, relevant and absolutely delightful."
--NPR

"Laced with Herron's mordant wit and whip-crack dialogue."
--Financial Times

"Every bit as funny, exciting and surprisingly poignant as the TV show."
--Minnesota Star Tribune

"Quirky and suspenseful with a touch of humor."
--Barnes & Noble

"Clown Town is a magisterially accomplished novel and Herron a master of vivid voice, showing himself in a plot of shining, machine-like efficiency."
--The Spectator Australia, Books of the Year

"As well as containing most of the best jokes of this year's crime fiction, Herron's book boasts the best action set-piece."
--The Telegraph, Best Books of the Year

"Britain's best living spy writer, Mick Herron has done it again . . . This may be the funniest dialogue Herron has ever written for Jackson Lamb . . . A rollercoaster ride, lethally compelling, culminating in wonderful plot and counterplot."
--Spybrary

"Overflowing with gritty action and mordant humor, this is as good as espionage novels get."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence."
--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Since he first introduced the misfit spies of Slough House in 2008's Slow Horses, Herron has been compared to the likes of Graham Greene, Len Deighton, and John le Carré. But Herron's stories are entirely unique, and his writing style is unlike anyone else's, with a deliciously satirical edge . . . If there are any spy-fiction fans who haven't yet read Herron's books, now's a good time to rectify that."
--Booklist

"[The] payoff is spectacular."
--BookPage

"A terrific entry in a modern-day spy series that never disappoints."
--Bookreporter.com

Praise for the Slough House Series

"What spurs me to keep reading each new installment is Herron's absurdist voice, which could devolve into cheap cynicism but never does. That's why the Slough House denizens, from Jackson Lamb to Roddy Ho to newcomer Ashley Kahn, maintain pathos in the face of parody--they may be bitter, but they have pride in themselves and their work."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Intricate plotting, full of twists . . . Herron can certainly write a real spy story, with all the misdirection and sleight of hand that requires. But it's the surly Slough House mood, the eccentric characters, and Herron's very black, very dry sense of humor that made me read one after the other without a break."
--Slate.com

"I'll tell you what, to have been lucky enough to play Smiley in one's career; and now go and play Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron's novels--the heir, in a way, to le Carré--is a terrific thing."
--Gary Oldman

"Confirms Mick Herron as the best spy novelist now working."
--NPR's Fresh Air

"Compulsively readable, tightly plotted."
--Los Angeles Times

"Out of a wickedly imagined version of MI5, [Herron] has spun works of diabolical plotting and high-spirited cynicism, their pages filled with sardonic wit . . . Happily for Mr. Herron--if alas for us--events continue to produce rich material for his special gifts, and we hope he is scribbling away making good use of it all."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Heroic struggles, less-heroic failures and a shoot-out-cum-heist . . . with no let-up in the page turning throughout."
--Esquire

"The best in a generation, by some estimations, and irrefutably the funniest."
--The New Yorker

"Herron's strength is in examining at close hand the absurdities, conflicts, and dangers of the intelligence agency as an institution at the center of some of the most central conflicts in the 21st century."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

About the Author

Mick Herron is a British novelist and short story writer who was born in Newcastle and studied at Oxford. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling Slough House espionage series, four Zoë Boehm mysteries, and several standalone novels. His work has won the CWA Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in Crime Writing, the Gold Dagger, the Steel Dagger, the Theakstons Novel of the Year Award, the Barry Award, the Ellery Queen Readers Award, the Raymond Chandler Award, and the Pepe Carvalho Award. Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road have both been adapted into Apple Original series. Mick is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Oxford and writes full-time.