The new Slough House thriller from the #1 bestseller Mick Herron
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
—-
‘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
—-
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
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
—-
‘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
—-
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
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Reviews
Clown Town is an absolute belter. No one is better than Mick at loading exactly the right words and taking aim at the egos and idiocies in Westminster and further afield. More satisfying than a squirty flower in the face of your least favourite politician
Mick Herron has that rare gift of being able to write exquisitely and hilariously while keeping us on the edge of our seats. An IRA double agent and a corrupt politician are central to this story while Diana Taverner and Jackson Lamb slug it out once again. Thoroughly enjoyable, I now have a whole new bunch of insults to add to my collection
The circus is back in town and this time the slow horses are not the only clowns in the big tent . . . effectively blends plot, satire and pure, unadulterated fun. Another Mick Herron virtuoso performance
Pure class: thrilling, funny and moving. By now it's obvious that the Slough House novels are not just suspenseful, laugh-out-loud entertainments, not just literary marvels, but important too, essential stories of the state of the UK in the twenty first century
Funny, thrilling and shot through with real anger at the state of the nation
No one can rival Mick Herron . . . the series is increasingly acquiring a seriousness of heart that befits Herron's achievement
This isn't just a superb thriller about dysfunctional spooks. In these dark days, there are not many novels of any sort that make you laugh aloud. But this is one of them
Intricate plots of simmering tension, an intelligence service that hums with mundanity and mendacity, and X-rated dialogue delivering character assassination with every withering riposte. . . a series that continues to reinvigorate the spy fiction genre
Laced with Herron's mordant wit and whip-crack dialogue . . . Herron knits the threads together with his familiar verve
The satirical thriller is every bit as funny, fast-paced and outrageously irreverent as its fans have come to expect . . . A breathless ride of a novel, the jokes keep pace with the pathos as Herron shows he can handle heartbreak just as adeptly as humour
The writing is deliriously funny, imaginatively florid and magically descriptive of the nuances of London life
Another superb spy adventure
The jokes are as good as ever, the writing is glorious, the plot is deviously clever and the glimpses of real history add a layer of seriousness to the story . . . superb novel
A totemic figure in the spy fiction boom . . . His thrilling, witty, idiosyncratic novels have sold more than four million copies and have been credited with revitalising the genre
A magisterially accomplished novel and Herron a master of vivid voice, showing himself in a plot of shining, machine-like efficiency
It's no surprise that viewers (and commissioners) can't get enough of Herron's knotty, ambiguous and unabashedly clever plots and oddball characters
Masterly
I was an early adopter of Mick Herron of Slow Horses fame, and his latest masterpiece Clown Town has just emerged. If you are a fan of the Apple TV series, the books are a must read. The dialogue from anti-hero Jackson Lamb is on another level
As well as containing most of the best jokes of this year's crime fiction, Herron's book boasts the best action set-piece
Herron again blends satire with politics and page-turning pacing
Clown Town is a masterpiece
A twisty, comic tale centred on a covert operation from the heigh of the Northern Ireland Troubles
Over the last decade this series of novels about a community of cashiered spies has made the transition from "well-kept secret" to "household name". Herron is now an authentic megastar of the genre . . . It's Herron's line-by-line writing that really makes [the books] stand out. Has there been a more magnificently bossy narrative voice since Dickens? Or one more in love with the baroque flourish?
A must-read series
A fabulous, funny book with a delicious sting in the tail
Herron at his masterly best, a stylish page-turner . . . the tales of the Slow Horses have matched the muddle, shoddiness and loss of status of post-Brexit Britain
