Clown Town – Herron Mick (2025)

David Cartwright used to say that old spies grow ridiculous, and that old spies are not much better than clowns. He forgot to add that they can also be dangerous, especially when they are struggling, as Diana Taverner discovers when the past lands on her desk. An operation carried out during the Troubles exposed the ugly side of state security, and those involved now threaten to reveal what happened. Yet every threat conceals an opportunity, and the would-be blackmailer soon becomes part of Taverner’s solution to a much newer problem. The O.B. has long been buried and left his library to the Spooks’ College, where one of the books has disappeared, or perhaps never existed. While waiting to be cleared for work, River Cartwright investigates the secrets hidden in his grandfather’s library, expecting harmless activity. But nothing involving the slow horses stays harmless for long. Louisa Guy is considering her future, Shirley Dander is wondering whether the new recruit Ash Khan is as annoying as she seems, Roddy Ho wants everyone to know that his tattoo is a hummingbird rather than a platypus, and Catherine Standish simply wants everyone to get along. Lamb thinks they should all be at their desks when Taverner starts plotting, because people get hurt, and he has no intention of sending in the clowns. But they are his clowns, and if they do not all come home, there will be a reckoning.