The 9^th book 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 heart breaking and hilarious thriller by Mick Herron, with a degree in English from Balliol College, Oxford.

The Slow Horses are MI5 officers who have been put out to grass at Slough House, a drab office building in central London. Foremost among the team of boozers, good for nothing, and walking wounded is their boss, Jackson Lamb, a proudly flatulent slob who appearance belies a very sharp operator. Clown Town features the dashing agent now on sick leave after being poisoned by the Russians, to Roddy HO, the tech wizard, and the Machiavellian Diana Taverner, MI5 chief and Lamb’s arch rival.

David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson, “Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren’t much better than clowns”. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they’ve fallen on hard times- as River Cartwright is to learn the hard way.

David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the book 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, an 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. 

Clown Town (Slough House #9, by Mick Herron, Baskerville £22 Soho Crime $29.95