Clown Town (Slough House 09)

13.18

Chief of the intelligence service, Diana Taverner, doesn’t appreciate threats. So, when a team involved in a double-agent operation during the height of the Troubles are threatening to expose the truth and lay bare the dark side of state security, Taverner turns this blackmail into an opportunity. Slow horse, River Cartwright, is out in the cold waiting to be passed fit for work. To kill time, and with his grandfather – a former head spy – long dead, River investigates the secrets of his private library where a book has gone missing. Or perhaps it never existed.

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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

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 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

*Mick Herron's Clown Town was a Sunday Times Number Four bestseller in hardback in the second week of September 2025

Additional information

Weight280 g
Dimensions23.4 × 12.8 × 3.4 cm
Book_author

Herron, Mick

Publisher

Baskerville

Imprint

Baskerville

Cover

Paperback

Pages

352

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

823.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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