Showcases [Herron's] unique perspective on spycraft and skill in creating complicated, empathetic characters ... Showcases the series’ best qualities ... The dialogue between its inhabitants is still biting ... The novel’s cast of characters is wide, but written with a surety that renders each unique ... Herron’s prose remains memorably unique among his peers, despite his occasional tendency toward overindulgence ... But more often than not, the writing sparkles ... It’s a quirk and a gift that the author can tell such somber, unsettling stories so sprightly.
The author often comes at his subjects slantwise, with unexpected wordplay, striking imagery and leisurely unfolding back stories ... Clown Town may be the best Slow Horses book to date ... Mr. Herron’s style is as relaxed and stylish as ever, accommodating both keen one-line descriptions...and more elaborate imagery ... Readers are likely to be happy for the opportunity to keep playing in his shabby, shadowy world.
The ostensible plot takes some time to get into gear ... Herron draws the threads together in a deadly confrontation ... It’s tempting to wonder if...Herron’s portrayal of his protagonists is now shaped a little by their characterisation on screen ... Yet if there were suspicions in the recent novels that Herron was marking time, what is now more apparent is the warranted confidence of an author in his own abilities ... Part of the fun is seeing him cope with the challenge he has set himself of depicting variations on a formula .... Herron must have unusually heightened senses ... Witty byplay ... Grim and funny at the same time.
It’s good to be back in the unspeakable awfulness of Slough House ... Herron unfolds his story with characteristic panache ... He has a way of being parsimonious with his information, preferring to dance the reader around a fact before slyly, almost reluctantly, permitting it to slither into the light of day. His plotting is equally fine-tuned ... As neatly choreographed as a Whitehall farce ... Superb ... In these dark days, there are not many novels of any sort that make you laugh aloud. But this is one of them.
The books are still the main event – because it’s Herron’s line-by-line writing that really makes them stand out. Has there been a more magnificently bossy narrative voice since Dickens? ... Is the formula showing signs of fatigue? Not by my lights. If it has a weakness – and it’s not much of a weakness, because Herron is a deft enough writer for the most part to get away with it – it’s a tonal limitation. The tug towards flippancy makes it tricky, sometimes, to shift gear into real pathos or real peril. Lamb is comical, but the stories insist that he’s also dangerous. He is callous, but the stories insist he is also, in his way, conscientious.
The beauty of Herron’s virtuosic, unconventional spy thrillers is that they are always perched on a precipice between sharply observed political intrigue and absurdity. That tension has never been more apparent than in Clown Town. Herron’s ninth book burns more slowly and chaotically than its predecessors, wading deeply into the knottiest of spy versus spy quagmires and relying on the darkest of humor and readers’ investment in the core cast of characters to keep things moving. Though it takes time, the eventual payoff is spectacular.
Fans of this wonderful series will be delighted with Clown Town, and if there are any spy-fiction fans who haven’t yet read Herron’s books, now’s a good time to rectify that.
In some ways, this is a heavier book than its predecessors ... However, it is also a bit less amusing ... The overall premise is beginning to show strain ... Herron’s prose, it must be said, remains top-notch, chock full of puns and timely references, as well as lots of colorful dialogue. But, by this point, Lamb’s increasingly inventive invective has become predictable ... If the series has lost some of its initial appeal, it still has enough magic to keep fans reading.
