One of the delights of
this series is that plenty of the characters who turn up are very thinly
disguised members of the current and recent British political elite. (Review by
Margaret von Klemperer)
First, a word of warning. If you haven’t read any of Mick
Herron’s Slough House series, it
really is best to start with the first one – Slow Horses. This is the ninth, and there are also a number of
stand-alone titles. If you start here, not only will you miss a lot, but I
would imagine the complexities might just be impossible to unravel.
This time round, the surviving members of the Slow Horses gang of secret service rejects and misfits are still hanging on at Slough House, being abused, insulted and ultimately protected by their repellent boss Jackson Lamb who is still smoking, breaking wind and mending his socks with duct tape on the top floor.
Currently not in the pack is River Cartwright, one of the most faithful members of the team, but he has been affected by a dose of Novichok and First Desk and the proper Secret Service doesn’t want to see him pass a medical. But River’s late grandfather’s library has been moved to his old Oxford college, and the librarian curating it has noticed an anomaly. Of course, River’s grandfather was also a spy. So, with not much else to do, River sets off to Oxford to check it out. But he is not the only person who is interested.
The prologue to the novel is a particularly violent scene, dating back to the Troubles in Northern Ireland – if you are squeamish, you might not care for this bit. But it is a scene setter, and eventually, its relevance will become clear.
As things begin to unravel spectacularly in Oxford, other members of the Slow Horses get involved, and the inevitable chaos erupts. Meanwhile, the First Desk is having a spot of bother of her own, and a sign of her desperation is that she involves Jackson. Of course, that is going to turn out to be a mistake – for someone.
One of the delights of this series is that plenty of the characters who turn up are very thinly disguised members of the current and recent British political elite. Herron has a lot of fun with them – one memorable quote, from Jackson of course, is that the current Prime Minister and government have “hit the ground runny”. As always, the wit is both clever and caustic.
I must say though that the ending was something of a shock, and not what I expected. I’m not quite sure where it will leave the Slow Horses in the future. There has always been violence in the series, and visceral unpleasantness, but it is balanced by the cleverness and wit. Spying is a dirty business, and Slough House is at the particularly dirty end, so maybe nothing will change – we will see.
If all of the above makes no sense, do yourselves a favour and start the series at the beginning. I know there is an Apple TV version, but the books are in a league of their own in the spy fiction genre. - Review by Margaret von Klemperer
Clown Town is published by Baskerville: ISBN978-1-399-80045-7
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