The brand new Slough House thriller from the #1 bestseller Mick Herron

*Now an award-winning Apple TV+ series starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden*

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Spies lie. They betray. It's what they do.

Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, 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.

Regent's Park's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity.

Over at Slough House, the repository for failed spies, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks.

Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault.

But they're his clowns. And if they don't all come home, there'll be a reckoning.

Masterly * Times Literary Supplement, books of the year *
Clown Town is a masterpiece -- India Knight * Sunday Times *
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? -- Sam Leith * Guardian *
No one can rival Mick Herron . . . the series is increasingly acquiring a seriousness of heart that befits Herron's achievement * The Times *
Funny, thrilling and shot through with real anger at the state of the nation * Mail on Sunday *
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 * The Spectator *
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 * Irish Times *
Laced with Herron's mordant wit and whip-crack dialogue . . . Herron knits the threads together with his familiar verve * Financial Times *
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 * Literary Review *
A fabulous, funny book with a delicious sting in the tail * Irish Independent *
A twisty, comic tale centred on a covert operation from the heigh of the Northern Ireland Troubles * RTE guide *
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 * Good Housekeeping *
Herron again blends satire with politics and page-turning pacing * The i *
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 -- Liz Nugent, author of STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND
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 -- Simon Mason, author of A VOICE IN THE NIGHT
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 -- Sarah Hilary, author of SHARP GLASS
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 -- Vaseem Khan, author of CITY OF DESTRUCTION
A must-read series * Irish Examiner *
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 * Buzz *
The writing is deliriously funny, imaginatively florid and magically descriptive of the nuances of London life * Country Life *
Another superb spy adventure * Heat *
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 * Telegraph *
A magisterially accomplished novel and Herron a master of vivid voice, showing himself in a plot of shining, machine-like efficiency -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *
It's no surprise that viewers (and commissioners) can't get enough of Herron's knotty, ambiguous and unabashedly clever plots and oddball characters * Independent *
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 * Country & Town House *
As well as containing most of the best jokes of this year's crime fiction, Herron's book boasts the best action set-piece * Daily Telegraph *

Mick Herron is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have been published in over twenty-five languages and are the basis of the award-winning TV series Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. Among his other novels are the Zoë Boehm series, also now adapted for TV starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, and the standalone novels The Secret Hours and Nobody Walks. Mick's awards include the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Gold, Steel and Diamond Daggers. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.