Clown Town by Mick Herron
Sep. 22nd, 2025 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
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.
It’s a few weeks after BAD ACTORS.
River Cartwright (now living with Sid Baker) is twiddling his thumbs as he waits to be passed fit enough to return to the slow horses after having a medical to confirm his recovery from a bad case of novichok. Having donated his grandfather’s library of books to the Spooks College at Oxford University, he is surprised to get a phone call from Erin Grey (formerly of the Park and last seen in THE SECRET HOURS now a Masters student). Erin was tasked with helping to recreate the OB’s study and has discovered that a book is missing - a book that doesn’t appear to exist. Intrigued, he agrees to meet up with her to see if he can resolve the mystery.
Louisa Guy is contemplating a job offer. Devon Welles (former Park Dog and friend of the late Emma Flyte) is recruiting for his private security firm and having remembered Emma’s high opinion of Louisa, is giving her the chance to escape Slough House. Weirdly, Louisa hasn’t said yes yet, even though the badly scarred Lech Wicinski has commandeered River’s desk in her office, despite her telling him not to.
Having dropped out of the San as much of an addict as when she went in, Shirley Dander is hacked off with Catherine Standish’s pointed attempts to get her back on the straight and narrow. Ashley Khan is equally hacked off with her mother’s attempts to make her get a boyfriend and also learn more about her colleagues.
And Roddy Ho? Well. He has a new tattoo.
Meanwhile Diana Taverner is facing weightier problems. Someone is trying to blackmail her with a recording of one of the Park’s dirtiest little escapades. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Park protected a double-agent known as Pitchfork who abused this protection to carry out some casual murders and rapes, before some aggrieved former comrades caught up with him in a safe house and exacted revenge. At the same time, Peter Judd continues to abuse his relationship with her, this time demanding that she exercise her influence as First Desk with the new Government for the benefit of his Chinese friends. But for Diana, crisis and opportunity are just two sides of the same coin, and she wouldn’t be First Desk if she wasn’t capable of coming up with a plan …
The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.
It’s been 3 years since BAD ACTORS was published and when I reviewed it, I said that I thought there was a lot of set up in it for book 9. That set up pays off in spades in this book as Herron resolves 2 of the long standing plot strands through the books - Judd’s control of Taverner and Taverner and Lamb’s uneasy stand-off. I’m going to jump to the end and say that there is a lot that is up in the air at the end of this book, including Slough House’s future, which does make me very excited to see what happens in book 10.
Change is one of the key themes that runs though this book. Louisa is thinking about giving up on her idea of returning to the Park and taking a job with Devon Welles while River is trying to deal with the long term effects of being poisoned but is forced to consider a future outside the slow horses. The difference between them is that Louisa is finally able to move forward while River keeps being dragged back into the service, in part because he’s not been able to leave the OB behind.
The other theme - more ominously - is death. Louisa is still haunted by the ghosts of her lover, Min Harper (killed in DEAD LIONS) and her friend, Emma Flyte (who was killed wearing Louisa’s coat in JOE COUNTRY). Shirley is thinking of Marcus Longridge (killed in SPOOK STREET) and JK Coe (killed in JOE COUNTRY). Consequently, I went through the book fully expecting one of the slow horses to die but Herron does a great job of not revealing who it is until the final chapters. I won’t spoil it, but I was genuinely very upset when the reveal came and I really don’t know what this means for dynamic of Slough House going forward.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward, drawing inspiration from the real-life scandal of stakeknife, a double agent who worked with British intelligence but tortured and murdered IRA “informers”. Here the plot revolves around 4 former Park agents known as ‘The Brain Trust’ who were assigned to protect Pitchfork, only to be disavowed and cast adrift when Pitchfork’s activities came to light, while Pitchfork himself was given a new identity and a new life. When their leader discovers that the OB made a secret recording showing how much the government and the Park knew of Pitchfork’s activities, they elect to blackmail Taverner for a better life than the ones they’ve been given. Taverner, being Taverner, not only refuses to give in to the blackmail, but judo throws them into a task of her own. For all the straightforwardness of the plot, however, there is sheer joy in the way that Herron executes it. He maintains every thread in a way that kept me completely engrossed so even if you might guess the direction, you’re never sure how you’re going to get there and I definitely was not expecting the holy heck resolution to one particular plot strand.
There are some great scenes in the book, from the brutal cold open to a skewering of a newly minted prime minister with a legal background and a considerable majority (and who is definitely not Keir Starmer) in a way that PRIVATE EYE would envy. There is also some good character development, most notably for Louisa and River who have each dealt with traumas in their past and now realise that they are at a crossroads. Added to this are the scenes between Jackson and Catherine (who is increasingly becoming a confidant) and Jackson and Diana, all of which expand out Jackson’s character and reveal more of his own code of loyalty and his unblinking ruthlessness. If you read THE SECRET HOURS then there are a couple of neat little nods to it, which I also enjoyed.
And yet for all of the things that I enjoyed about this book, I did have a couple of issues. Firstly the writing isn’t as crisp as in the previous books. Technically, there’s head-hopping within sentences, which is a personal bugbear of mine (I’m not saying it absolutely shouldn’t be done but if it’s going to be done then it needs to be clearer than it is here). Then Herron’s customary leisurely overview and description of Slough House and its location just seemed to sag more than previously. It always has a slight Dickensian vibe to it but this time it struck me as more forced and flabbier than is usually the case. Then there’s the fact that Lech, Shirley, Roddy and Ashley all remain little more than caricatures. I’d had some hope for Shirley given what we see of her in BAD ACTORS but she is very much a side player here (although Herron has her acknowledge it) and her continued substance issues and hair trigger propensity for violence are pretty much becoming her character, which is a shame. Ashley has been in two books now and there’s nothing to her beyond having a pushy mum and being clueless around Jackson. Lech simply doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, which is a real shame given that of all the slow horses, he’s the one whose only mistake was to do a favour for someone. And then there’s Roddy - much as I love his arrogance, he never seems to learn and that’s becoming limiting (although in his defence, the way this book ends means he may just have to confront who he really is).
The big plus is the way this book ends, book 10 could go in a number of directions, which is genuinely exciting. Slough House is - for the first time - in real danger of disappearing and what that means for Jackson and the slow horses means that I am already anxious to put in a pre-order.
The Verdict:
The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.
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.
It’s a few weeks after BAD ACTORS.
River Cartwright (now living with Sid Baker) is twiddling his thumbs as he waits to be passed fit enough to return to the slow horses after having a medical to confirm his recovery from a bad case of novichok. Having donated his grandfather’s library of books to the Spooks College at Oxford University, he is surprised to get a phone call from Erin Grey (formerly of the Park and last seen in THE SECRET HOURS now a Masters student). Erin was tasked with helping to recreate the OB’s study and has discovered that a book is missing - a book that doesn’t appear to exist. Intrigued, he agrees to meet up with her to see if he can resolve the mystery.
Louisa Guy is contemplating a job offer. Devon Welles (former Park Dog and friend of the late Emma Flyte) is recruiting for his private security firm and having remembered Emma’s high opinion of Louisa, is giving her the chance to escape Slough House. Weirdly, Louisa hasn’t said yes yet, even though the badly scarred Lech Wicinski has commandeered River’s desk in her office, despite her telling him not to.
Having dropped out of the San as much of an addict as when she went in, Shirley Dander is hacked off with Catherine Standish’s pointed attempts to get her back on the straight and narrow. Ashley Khan is equally hacked off with her mother’s attempts to make her get a boyfriend and also learn more about her colleagues.
And Roddy Ho? Well. He has a new tattoo.
Meanwhile Diana Taverner is facing weightier problems. Someone is trying to blackmail her with a recording of one of the Park’s dirtiest little escapades. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Park protected a double-agent known as Pitchfork who abused this protection to carry out some casual murders and rapes, before some aggrieved former comrades caught up with him in a safe house and exacted revenge. At the same time, Peter Judd continues to abuse his relationship with her, this time demanding that she exercise her influence as First Desk with the new Government for the benefit of his Chinese friends. But for Diana, crisis and opportunity are just two sides of the same coin, and she wouldn’t be First Desk if she wasn’t capable of coming up with a plan …
The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.
It’s been 3 years since BAD ACTORS was published and when I reviewed it, I said that I thought there was a lot of set up in it for book 9. That set up pays off in spades in this book as Herron resolves 2 of the long standing plot strands through the books - Judd’s control of Taverner and Taverner and Lamb’s uneasy stand-off. I’m going to jump to the end and say that there is a lot that is up in the air at the end of this book, including Slough House’s future, which does make me very excited to see what happens in book 10.
Change is one of the key themes that runs though this book. Louisa is thinking about giving up on her idea of returning to the Park and taking a job with Devon Welles while River is trying to deal with the long term effects of being poisoned but is forced to consider a future outside the slow horses. The difference between them is that Louisa is finally able to move forward while River keeps being dragged back into the service, in part because he’s not been able to leave the OB behind.
The other theme - more ominously - is death. Louisa is still haunted by the ghosts of her lover, Min Harper (killed in DEAD LIONS) and her friend, Emma Flyte (who was killed wearing Louisa’s coat in JOE COUNTRY). Shirley is thinking of Marcus Longridge (killed in SPOOK STREET) and JK Coe (killed in JOE COUNTRY). Consequently, I went through the book fully expecting one of the slow horses to die but Herron does a great job of not revealing who it is until the final chapters. I won’t spoil it, but I was genuinely very upset when the reveal came and I really don’t know what this means for dynamic of Slough House going forward.
The plot itself is pretty straightforward, drawing inspiration from the real-life scandal of stakeknife, a double agent who worked with British intelligence but tortured and murdered IRA “informers”. Here the plot revolves around 4 former Park agents known as ‘The Brain Trust’ who were assigned to protect Pitchfork, only to be disavowed and cast adrift when Pitchfork’s activities came to light, while Pitchfork himself was given a new identity and a new life. When their leader discovers that the OB made a secret recording showing how much the government and the Park knew of Pitchfork’s activities, they elect to blackmail Taverner for a better life than the ones they’ve been given. Taverner, being Taverner, not only refuses to give in to the blackmail, but judo throws them into a task of her own. For all the straightforwardness of the plot, however, there is sheer joy in the way that Herron executes it. He maintains every thread in a way that kept me completely engrossed so even if you might guess the direction, you’re never sure how you’re going to get there and I definitely was not expecting the holy heck resolution to one particular plot strand.
There are some great scenes in the book, from the brutal cold open to a skewering of a newly minted prime minister with a legal background and a considerable majority (and who is definitely not Keir Starmer) in a way that PRIVATE EYE would envy. There is also some good character development, most notably for Louisa and River who have each dealt with traumas in their past and now realise that they are at a crossroads. Added to this are the scenes between Jackson and Catherine (who is increasingly becoming a confidant) and Jackson and Diana, all of which expand out Jackson’s character and reveal more of his own code of loyalty and his unblinking ruthlessness. If you read THE SECRET HOURS then there are a couple of neat little nods to it, which I also enjoyed.
And yet for all of the things that I enjoyed about this book, I did have a couple of issues. Firstly the writing isn’t as crisp as in the previous books. Technically, there’s head-hopping within sentences, which is a personal bugbear of mine (I’m not saying it absolutely shouldn’t be done but if it’s going to be done then it needs to be clearer than it is here). Then Herron’s customary leisurely overview and description of Slough House and its location just seemed to sag more than previously. It always has a slight Dickensian vibe to it but this time it struck me as more forced and flabbier than is usually the case. Then there’s the fact that Lech, Shirley, Roddy and Ashley all remain little more than caricatures. I’d had some hope for Shirley given what we see of her in BAD ACTORS but she is very much a side player here (although Herron has her acknowledge it) and her continued substance issues and hair trigger propensity for violence are pretty much becoming her character, which is a shame. Ashley has been in two books now and there’s nothing to her beyond having a pushy mum and being clueless around Jackson. Lech simply doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, which is a real shame given that of all the slow horses, he’s the one whose only mistake was to do a favour for someone. And then there’s Roddy - much as I love his arrogance, he never seems to learn and that’s becoming limiting (although in his defence, the way this book ends means he may just have to confront who he really is).
The big plus is the way this book ends, book 10 could go in a number of directions, which is genuinely exciting. Slough House is - for the first time - in real danger of disappearing and what that means for Jackson and the slow horses means that I am already anxious to put in a pre-order.
The Verdict:
The 9th in Mick Herron’s SLOUGH HOUSE spy thriller series is a game changer for the slow horses as they take casualties (including a fatality) and scores are settled. It has the sharp wit, savage violence, and political skewering of the previous books but some of the writing isn’t as clear as it could be, and some of the slow horses remain underdeveloped. That said it still held my attention and the stunning ending makes me impatient for book 10.
