Clown Town

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

----

Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer Ian Rankin

Clown Town is a masterpieceIndia Knight, Sunday Times

An authentic megastar of the genre Sam Leith, Guardian

No one can rival Mick HerronThe Times

A superb thrillerThe Spectator

MasterlyTimes Literary Supplement, books of the year

----

MI5s First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesnt 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 mans 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, its what they do.

*Mick Herrons Clown Town was a Sunday Times Number Four bestseller in hardback in the second week of September 2025 and a Sunday Times Number Nine bestseller in paperback in the first week of May 2026.