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

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.

Available to pre-order now!

Details

ISBN13: 9781399800457
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 352
Edition:
Publication Date: 09 Sep 2025
Publisher: John Murray Press
Publication City, Country: United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.2(L)x3(W)440
Weight (gm): 440

Author Biography

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 Zoe 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.

Reviews

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
Praise for Mick Herron --
The finest writer of espionage fiction we have . . . Herron is simply incapable of writing a bad book -- Mark Billingham
Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer -- Ian Rankin
Britain's finest living thriller writer * Daily Express *
The man is a genius * The Spectator *
The foremost living spy novelist in the English language * New Statesman *
Herron is at the summit of a new golden age of spy fiction * Sunday Times *
A master of espionage fiction * Observer *
Mick Herron is one of the beadiest satirists of our times * Daily Telegraph *